Old Friends and New Beginnings
by hypergolic
Summary: Terry & Dino are sent to secure the freedom of a kidnap victim in Tinuega But things don't always work as planned. Set a couple of years before the film. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1  Mexico

**A/N – I thought I'd try something a bit different than my normal stuff. I've never been a huge Russell Crowe fan, but I loved 'Proof of Life' after finally succumbing and watching it goodness knows how many years after it was actually released – There's something fun about Dino's character that got me hooked. So here we go, a quick (ok so not quick exactly) fic set a couple of years prior to the movie that will hopefully cover a few points bought up in the film like where has Dino met Arturo Fernandez before, why he left Luthan Risk, oh and that birthday party involving Terry jumping out of a cake.**

**So anyhow – there's a warning here, the language and violence is…not exactly hugely offensive, but a bit more, erm, edgy than I've written in other fics – you can't say you weren't warned!**

**Hope you enjoy – please take the time to leave me a review.**

**End transmission.**

**salutes**

**Chapter 1 – Mexico.**

"What the fuck was that all about mate?" Terry Thorne spat as he swung himself around the door frame, his back slamming against the wall and lifting a small cloud of dust into the air with the force of his movement; gunfire erupted in the aperture where he'd been standing just milliseconds earlier. He ran a hand down is body just making sure that he was still in one, un-perforated piece, and that the hostile fire hadn't forced him to do a passable impression of a colander.

Dino, who had adopted a similar position to Terry but on the other side of the doorway, shrugged.

"Fourth of July?" He quipped as he released the empty magazine from his handgun, letting the spent container fall to the ground with a clatter, although the sound was lost in amongst another spray of gunfire that exploded in a shower of bangs and flashes in the doorway. A couple of the bullets bit sharply into the wood frame less than ten centimetres from Dino's face sending a cloud of splinters raining down.

"Seriously mate, what the hell did you say to piss 'em off so much?"

Dino pulled a new, full, magazine from his belt and slammed it into the gun housing hearing it load with a crisp snap.

"Less what I said, more what I did, I guess." He lifted the gun to his eye level and looked down the length of the barrel, pulling the slide action back before letting it snap back into place pulling a bullet from the newly installed magazine into the chamber, concurrently pulling the firing pin back and readying the weapon to spit its deadly load out of the barrel as soon as he put the slightest pressure on the trigger.

Terry waited for him to elaborate on his statement, and when no more information was forthcoming he dared to expose his arm to enemy fire for the briefest of seconds and shoved Dino on the shoulder.

"Dino, spill."

"So I won the pot in a poker game. Hey, just because they don't wanna pay up, not my fault." He shrugged.

"Jesus Dino, you played poker with these guys? You got a fuckin' death wish or somethin'? No, don't bother answering that, I got a pretty good idea." Terry ducked his head back further into the shadows as more bullets came blasting through the door. The pause in the conversation brought a thought spinning into his mind. "Just tell me you didn't try and hustle 'em."

Dino looked across to the other side of the doorway to where Terry was concealed and raised an eyebrow.

"Fuck, Dino, you scammed 'em didn't you. And suddenly I'm not surprised we're being shot at."

"Yeah, well they'll get bored soon enough and go away…"

There was another rat-tat of a stream of bullets hitting the outside of the structure accompanied this time by some curses in Spanish. Both men were fluent linguists and didn't like the words they were translating.

"…Or maybe not." He continued, now starting to sound a little sheepish.

"Y'know Dino, every now and then I'd like to complete a deal and actually be able to go back to the damn country without fear that I'm going to get my ass nailed to the wall by someone you pissed off the last time we were there. You are seriously reducing my travel options."

"Yeah, but then you'd just keep going back to some third-world shit-hole all the time, it'd get boring, I'm giving you the gift of variety." He turned to face Terry, hands open, palms up (as much as was possible while still holding a 9mm pistol) as if offering him a gift, but was instantly forced to slam his body back against the wall as a bullet missed him by millimetres.

"These guys are seriously starting to piss me off mate." Terry quipped, watching his friend's reflex kick in as he threw himself back against the thick wall again in order to avoid the projectile.

"You and me both man. On three?" Dino grinned as he spoke, and not for the first time in their working partnership Terry wondered how the hell Dino could enjoy these petrifying moments so much.

"On three." Terry nodded in agreement, "…One…"

"…Two…"

"…**Three**." They both shouted the last number together before rolling round the door frame, planting both feet in a firm stance and emptying their clips into the small group of men that was gathered outside, most of whom ducked behind makeshift shelters, although one or two gave a groan and clutched extremities as bullets hit flesh; emitting small clouds of blood-red mist. Efficiently, Dino and Terry quickly rolled back inside the shelter before the remaining men had a chance to regroup and fire their own weapons in retaliation.

"Did you see what I just saw?" Terry threw the question across to his partner on the other side of the doorway.

"Short range M224 mortar system? Hell yeah."

"Time we left the party?"

"Sure honey, I'll just get my purse." Dino pulled a tear gas canister off his belt as he spoke, ripped the pin out with his teeth and hurled the canister out of the door. Both men adopted a slightly crouched position that would allow them a quick getaway as soon as the device began to disperse its distasteful contents. Sure enough a few seconds later there was a small dull bang as the canister detonated, sending a cloud of tear gas in amongst the renegade group. Terry and Dino didn't hang around to appreciate the violent coughs and splutters of the crowd, putting their previously assumed stances to good use and sprinting to the back of the abandoned building. They used the erupting white gas cloud to mask their escape, Terry yanked open the sturdy wooden door at the back of the structure and Dino hurled himself out of the opening, instantly meeting a man with a rough appearance, who looked like he was in serious need of a bath; a red bandana tied around his head held his filthy black hair out of his face.

"You…" But that was the only word he managed to say before Dino's elbow made violent contact with his nose.

"Yep. Me." Dino grinned evilly as he look down over the figure now squirming on the floor, blood running freely from his nose. "Y'know I was always told it was bad form to kick a man while he's down, but hey, it's not like you're gonna think less of me is it?" He launched his size twelve army boot into the soft flesh south of the guy's stomach, ensuring that any romantic entanglements that this creep had planned for the near future would have to be put on hold. The kick elicited another, deeper, groan, one that if you'd merely been watching from the sidelines would have made your eyes water. Dino turned around to find Terry grappling with another, equally unwashed miscreant who seemed to be trying to gouge out his friend's eyes.

"Ah to hell with this shit." Terry muttered, and brought his right knee swiftly up to connect with his attacker's balls.

His opponent let out a grunt and sank to the floor, curling into a foetal position as soon as he hit the dusty ground.

"And you say I fight dirty." Dino called over.

"You do fight dirty. Me? I'm a gentleman unless they force my hand."

"Or in this case your knee."

Terry pretended to give it some thought before nodding his head.

"True. Let's just get out of here before backup arrives." They both jogged over to an open top jeep that was concealed behind a stack of wooden shipping crates a few metres away. Grabbing onto the exposed roll-bar framework of the khaki coloured vehicle they vaulted themselves over the sides of the jeep, sliding down into the smooth seats without opening the doors.

"I always wondered why you insisted on hiding the car when we get sent out to these places."

"You never know what kind of criminals are roaming around."

"Mostly you're the worst criminal roaming around."

"Hey, I'm offended." Dino pulled a mock hurt expression, but failed to hold it for long, his face breaking into a wide grin. He pulled a pair of sunglasses out of the drivers side door pocket and smoothly slipped them on, turned the key in the ignition and revved the engine, letting off the brake just in time to send the jeep's wheels into a squealing spin as the rubber tried to catch up with the speed of the wheel's rotation, producing a cloud of dust behind them as the vehicle shot forward. Dino pulled the jeep around the corner of the building they'd been sheltering in minutes before and found their group of attackers still recovering from the effects of the tear gas. He pulled the vehicle into a tight turn right next to them, letting the back wheels lapse into a short slide, sending another cloud of dust spraying over the men.

"Whoooo-yeah!" Dino yelled, laughing, a spray of gunfire erupted around them as the jeep lurched forward, bouncing over the rocky terrain on their way to finding the main road.

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2  Hell Birds

**A/N So first and foremost I have to apologise deeply for any Spanish speakers who might chance upon this fic. I don't speak a word of Spanish – apart from the few garbled and (let's face it; probably mispronounced) touristy phrases. I'll learn one day – I promise. But until then all the phrases in the upcoming story have been scrabbled together from internet translation programmes and forums, so they most probably won't make grammatical sense, but hopefully you'll get the idea of what I'm trying to say!**

**Chapter 2 – Hell Birds.**

"So how much did you make off the poker game?"

"Not much."

"Dino, how much?"

"Enough to buy us a night out when we land our next contract." Dino shuffled in his seat and reached into the back pocket of his pants. When he brought his hand back out he had a roll of bank notes settled in his palm that Terry guessed must have been about two inches thick.

"Jesus Dino, no wonder they were pissed."

"Here." Dino tossed the roll of money to his friend. "You better look after this, you know what I'm like with money."

"Depends where we are. In a bar you're as tight as a duck's arse mate. When there's women involved you're practically giving the stuff away."

"I am not as tight as a duck's arse. What the hell does that mean anyway? Aussie bastard."

"Yankee asshole."

They looked at each other and descended into laughter.

Twenty minutes after they'd roared out of the _aldea_ they'd found the main road, although from Dino's perspective the dirt track they were travelling along looked pretty much like the rest of the surrounding landscape. He snorted.

"What?" Terry tilted down the sunglasses that he'd slipped on as they'd left the little village in a cloud of dust.

"What d'ya mean, 'what'?"

"You snorted."

"I was just thinkin' why'd we always get sent to these crap-holes? Why don't we ever pull the juicy locations, where's the sun, sea and…"

"…sand?"

"Actually I was going to go with bikini-clad babes, but if you're gonna go all traditional on me…"

"You'd do better sticking to sand mate, you don't need another ex-wife to deal with."

"Good point, the one I got's already bleeding me dry. But seriously, last month it was Gauteng, the month before that it was Namibia and now, we're stuck out in the arse end of Mexico. Why isn't it ever Florida or Hawaii."

"Probably because there's not a huge call for kidnap and ransom experts in Florida or Hawaii on account of there not being a big kidnapping business. You moron."

"I'm just saying is all."

"Just keep your eyes on the road." Terry glanced down at the tatty map on his knee. "Where the hell are we going anyway? The airport's about two hundred miles in the opposite direction."

"Thought we'd have a change of scenery, all this K&R business has made you go soft pal."

Terry raised his eyebrows, but stayed silent wondering what the hell Dino had got planned. It was never a good sign when Dino took it upon himself to plan anything, it usually ended in either a loud argument or, as had most recently been illustrated; gunfire.

"Called in a favour from some old friends who are in the area." He tilted his own shades down and winked at Terry, before pushing the sunglasses up his nose again. In what Terry suspected was a ploy to stop him from asking any more questions Dino leaned down and stabbed at a button on the radio with his finger. Instantly Terry's head was forced back with the sheer volume of the rock music blasting out of the jeep's speakers, he looked over at his colleague who was now playing air guitar, no hands on the steering wheel; despite the fact that they were rapidly approaching what felt like the speed of sound. Terry leaned over and yanked the wheel back, thankfully ensuring the jeep narrowly missed colliding with a boulder which was roughly the size of a cow.

Finally, after they had endured fifteen minutes of the loudest music known to man Dino leaned down again and switched the radio off. Cautiously Terry prodded a finger in his ear, checking to see if his eardrums had ruptured at any point. There was no blood to be found and he breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that all the signs suggested that he'd regain his sense of hearing at some point in the near future.

"Here we are." Dino declared with a flourish of his hands.

"What d'you mean? Where's here? I don't see anything."

Dino pointed out across the bare landscape. At first Terry didn't see anything, then as they gradually approached (no that wasn't right, 'gradually' wasn't a word in Dino's vocabulary) Terry adapted his train of thought; as they approached at a thunderous speed a grey object became visible, a grey object that got clearer the closer they got…

"Jeez, is that a Hercules?"

"Yeah, C-130H Hercules, wingspan of nearly forty metres and capable of reaching speeds of over three-hundred and sixty miles per hour at twenty thousand feet. Just look at the big beautiful bitch."

The aeroplane was undeniably imposing. From his past SAS experience Terry knew that the C-130H was a four engine turboprop cargo aircraft capable of short take-offs and landings on rugged, unprepared runways. This one probably belonged to the USAF, the United States Air Force, or possibly AFSOC, Air Force Special Operations Command. The question was…

"What the hell is a Hercules C-130H doing out here in the arse-end of nowhere?"

"Giving us a ride home." Dino grinned.

He pulled the jeep to a halt by the side of the aircraft and honked the horn, a noise which brought a line of faces poking out of the cargo hatch at the back of the plane. One of the faces exited the plane, attached to the rest of a body clothed in army fatigues.

"Dino! You pussy, it's about damn time you showed up. How y'doin?"

Dino pulled himself up using the jeep's roll-bars until he was standing on the seat.

"Fuckin' brilliant. Drag your specials ops asses over here and meet a good friend of mine. This here's Terry Thorne, ex SAS and the second best K&R expert in the business, second only to me."

"You fucking wish Dino." Terry called up to him, a wide smirk on his face.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"So how d'you know Dino?" Three of the Hercules crew had come to sit by Terry as he sat back on the incredibly uncomfortable cargo plane seats, which in reality were nothing more than wooden planks with a thin layer of camouflage netting draped over them. The aircraft had taken off shortly after the pair had arrived at the apparently pre-arranged location. You couldn't exactly call the place a runway, all it was was a desolate piece of desert, but that was all that the Hercules crew had needed to put the huge metal bird back into the sky. The take-off wasn't even that bumpy, Terry had endured far worse in his days with the British forces.

They had to shout to be heard above the four gargantuan engines that were currently pushing the plane through the atmosphere at about twenty-thousand feet at a speed of just over three-hundred miles an hour. Terry had been introduced to the three special ops commandos by Dino, who had greeted the trio as long-lost brothers, and whose names Terry had been told were Angel, Turkey and Bird Dog. God he loved the military's love of ridiculous nicknames. It was Angel, whose forearms had been turned a blue-ish grey colour with the sheer amount of tattoos that covered his skin, that had asked the question.

Terry hooked his hand around his ear to signal that he hadn't quite heard, he didn't think his hearing had been fully restored since Dino's rock music in the jeep and the loud droning from the plane's engines wasn't helping matters. Angel leaned closer, repeating his question directly into Terry's ear.

"So how d'you know Dino?"

"Joint intelligence operation between UK and US forces a few years back. I'm ex-SAS," he revealed, poking a thumb into his chest to enforce his point, "Dino was working with the US army special forces at the time. We ended up partying our way through a political shit-storm in Chile, spent a few months living in each others pockets and found out that both our military contracts finished at about the same time. Anyhow, when we eventually got out of Chile we were both recruited to a new K&R firm, 'Luthan Risk' to train as liaison specialists, just haven't been able to get rid of him since." Terry glanced over to one side of the cargo bay where Dino had flung himself into a makeshift hammock that was hanging from metal loops in the fuselage, his leg hung over the side, swaying rhythmically with the motion of the aircraft. The only sign of life was the occasional grunting snore that came from under the cap that covered his face. He couldn't understand how Dino could manage to sleep, Terry had never been able to sleep on the long haul flights with the SAS, constantly psyching himself up for the upcoming mission, but Dino was another kettle of fish, thoroughly relaxed until the very last second and able to sleep on a knife blade.

"Yeah, sounds about right."

"What about you guys, where'd your paths cross with my…"

Dino let out a well timed and particularly loud grunt in his sleep, a grunt that challenged even the plane's engines in audibility, interrupting Terry's question.

"…I was going to say 'esteemed colleague', but perhaps 'socially inept' would be a better choice of phrase?"

The trio surrounding him laughed.

"Oh, Dino served his time as a 'Hell Bird'." Angel tapped his cap badge, indicating that 'Hell Birds' was the nickname for the Airborne unit they were attached to. "The freak just loves HALO jumps."

HALO jumps, or High Altitude-Low Opening jumps to give the technique its full title, was a military term for the deployment of personnel from an aircraft at twenty-five to thirty-five thousand feet and then requiring them to free-fall to a height of just a couple of thousand feet before opening their parachutes. I took a certain kind of man to enjoy HALOs, namely the slightly deranged, thrill-loving type, and Terry could see that the description fit Dino perfectly. Terry had done his fair share of HALO jumps in his career, but had never particularly enjoyed them, viewing them merely as part of the job; a means to an end. He'd always preferred the hand-to-hand combat part of the job rather than hurtling towards the ground at high speed, forced to gamble the continuation of your life on the hope that someone had packed your chute right.

"I got a lotta respect for the F.O.T." This time it was Bird Dog that spoke up.

Terry didn't ask him to explain what an F.O.T. was, he'd heard it before when he'd been stationed alongside American troops, it stood for 'fucking orange thing' and was undoubtedly a reference to Dino's mane of red hair.

"The man saved my life on a jump once. Got the suspension line tangled with the risers, couldn't get the chute release to work so I could deploy the reserve, I'm tellin' ya when that happens at two-thousand feet it's time to start shitting yourself man. Dino just appears from nowhere, freefalling right alongside me, knife held in his teeth, I swear he looked like a flying Rambo." Bird Dog laughed at his own turn of phrase. "He cut the cords and pulled the ripcord on my reserve. Like I said, the man saved my life."

"Plus the guy's a party animal, loves liquor and las chicas. Never a better time than when Señor Dino está en el ciudad, heh?"

"Did someone mention chicas?" Dino tilted the cap that was covering his eyes up with a finger, looking at the group out of one barely open eye.

"Well, welcome back to the land of the conscious, Dino. Did anyone ever tell you that you snore like a fucking pig?"

"Yeah, I think someone mentioned it once, Angel." Dino grinned and the pair began to laugh.

The guy nicknamed Turkey leaned over and explained the joke to Terry.

"Last op we worked together we were pretty short on space, Angel and Dino had to share a bunk. We were all woken up at about three am one morning by Angel trying to suffocate Dino by ramming one of his army boots down his throat."

"Hey, you try working a three-week mission with this prick," he pointed at Dino, "snoring down your ear every time you try to get some sleep. I'm telling you it was like sharing a bunk with a fucking water-buffalo."

The group descended into laughter and spent the next few hours relating humorous moments from past ops they'd worked and frequently taking the piss out of Dino, who took the whole thing very well, joining in and poking fun at himself.

Suddenly the engines took on a different sound, the pitch of the droning had altered, informing the men in the cargo bay, whose senses were all finely tuned in to the varying sounds of the aircraft, that they were rapidly coming in to land. Terry and Dino joined the rest of the crew, strapping themselves firmly into the harnesses that lined the sides of the cargo space. Terry had to admit that he didn't miss the discomfort of the military life. The K&R business paid well enough for him to fly business class most of the time, perhaps Dino was right, perhaps he was getting soft. But then an image flashed across his mind, a mental picture from the last case they'd taken for the company. He held his hand out, palm up, and flexed his fingers studying the digits as his brain showed him a private slideshow of his actions in Gauteng Province last month as he'd stuck his short hunting knife into the side of a kidnapper's throat and ripped a hole straight through his neck, severing his oesophagus, jugular vein and carotid artery in one powerful stroke and as he twisted his opponent's head felt his spine snap cleanly. Just one more kill for his tally. Terry wondered idly if he'd ever have to face St Peter at the pearly gates and provide sound reasoning why he had no choice other than to kill all the people he had, but then again, perhaps people like him didn't deserve to enter the gates of Heaven.

Dino sat opposite his friend, strapped tightly in his harness, watching Terry flex his fingers, forming a pretty good idea what he was thinking about at that moment in time and his lips pressed themselves into a thin line, a conscience was a valuable thing; it helped you make the right decision, but Dino silently worried that Terry's conscience might one day lead them both into trouble and wind up getting either of them killed.

Barely half an hour later the group were uncoupling themselves from the strong harnesses. The landing hadn't exactly been smooth, but then again you didn't really expect it to be in a Hercules. Almost as if a smooth landing would defy the very butch raison d'etre of this hefty beast of a plane.

Terry blinked a few times in the bright sunlight as he stepped onto the baking hot tarmac of the British military base. He turned to see Dino extricating himself from a manly, one armed hug with Bird-Dog, who sent a rough punch into Dino's shoulder as he broke away, doubtless a retaliation for some obscenity that Dino had tossed in his direction.

"Thanks for the lift guys. Hey, we still on for Cuba?"

"You bet your ass Dino. We'll see your sorry hide in Ciudad de la Habana, boy. The first round's on you."

Dino flipped a one fingered salute in response before breaking into laughter and turning to face Terry.

"So where the fuck are we?" Dino asked, a smug grin on his face.

"What d'you mean, where are we?" Terry was a little confused by the question, Dino had arranged the drop off after all.

"Well it can't be British soil cause the sun's shining. Every time I've visited this rock it's been pissing down with rain, I came to the conclusion that the sun had some major issues with the UK and decided to boycott it."

"Believe it Yank, it's the Sceptred Isle, beautiful England."

"So what's the plan?"

"Well, we're not scheduled to meet the bosses until tomorrow afternoon, your piggyback on a US military plane bought us a fair bit of time. I want to get down to Eton, visit my lad."

"Oh yeah." Dino looked a little crestfallen to find that he'd be alone for the afternoon. But a thought crossed his mind and he instantly perked up. "Hey Terry? Eton's in Berkshire right?" He produced the word 'Berkshire' in an exaggerated English accent and raised his eyebrows. "There many _chicas_ around Berkshire?"

Terry just laughed.

"One-track bloody mind."

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3 Mission Statement

**Chapter 3 – Mission Satement.**

Twenty-four hours later Dino emerged from the back of a black hackney carriage in the centre of London and Terry had to laugh at his friend and partner.

"What the hell's so funny?" Dino growled quietly. He'd spent the previous day, night and several of the earlier hours of the morning making an admirable attempt to drink the bars of Eton dry before travelling down to central London. Now though, he was suffering from a huge, thumping headache which he was desperately trying to conceal from the world around him.

"You are."

"Why'm I suddenly so funny?"

Terry just looked him up and down. For this formal meeting with the top brass of Luthan Risk, Dino had managed to peel himself out of his usual attire of either army fatigues or jeans and a leather jacket and had actually pulled on a suit. His expression revealed that he was less than impressed by this necessity. Dino had combed his usually flyaway red hair in an attempt to tame it, although a few tufts were starting to rebel and were sticking up at odd angles at the back of his head. There was also a slight red tinge to the skin of his neck where Dino was constantly fidgeting with the tight shirt collar.

"Never mind, my mistake – you look the picture of professionalism."

"Fuck off." Dino growled again, making sure his curse was quiet enough not to be heard by the crowds of businessmen that mingled around them and gave Terry a light punch to the shoulder.

Terry spun away from a second fist that was headed in his direction and grabbed the chrome handle on the plate glass door, dropping into a low bow as he pulled it open.

"Shall we proceed oh mighty K&R expert?"

"That's better, about time you showed your superior some damn respect." Dino walked through the door with head held high, a mock snobbish expression plastered on his face, although it didn't last for long as he broke into laughter a few steps later.

-----------------------------------------

Terry and Dino had been ushered into the plush conference suite ahead of Ian Havery, co-founder and current CEO of Luthan Risk. They took a quick glance around the room making mental notes of the wooden topped conference table whose surface was so smooth and highly polished that it gleamed and reflected the surrounding décor as if it were a mirror, All the seats arranged around the table were the plush leather kind, not imitation, and both men noticed how as soon as they'd crossed the doorway into the room their feet had sunk about an inch into the luxuriously thick carpet. Dino did a slight double-take as he glanced at one of the pictures hanging on the wall, he raised his eyebrows in Terry's direction, silently asking the phrase _'you think that's a genuine Picasso on the wall?'_ Terry almost imperceptibly shrugged as he correctly translated Dino's silent query; answering with an equally silent yet unmistakeable _'probably'_. Life for those individuals who occupied the top floor offices was most definitely sweet.

"Gentlemen, may I introduce two of my best Kidnap and Ransom specialists; Mr Anthony Paldino and Mr Terrence Thorne." Havery's introduction made the two K&R operatives aware of the presence of a pair of businessmen sitting at the far end of the conference table.

Terry felt the man next to him flinch slightly as they were introduced and at first wondered just who the hell this Anthony Paldino was. He was on the verge of looking round to see if anyone else had entered the room with them when his brain started to work properly and he suppressed the urge to slap himself for his moment of general stupidity. It was so rare to hear Dino's full name that it sounded strange and unfamiliar, the formal, every day moniker just didn't suit the more-than-average man standing at his side.

While Terry's mind had been elsewhere, Havery had continued with his spiel. Now he had turned towards his employees and was addressing them directly.

"These Gentlemen…" He said, indicating the two as yet unidentified businessmen. _Was there something distasteful in the way he said that word? _Terry thought_. Was it just his imagination, or was there an element of bitter aversion in the way he had said 'Gentlemen'?_ "…would like to secure our services to deal with a situation that has arisen in Tiñuega." Terry was certain that there was a note of disgust in his voice, and again there was that bitter tone to the way he had said 'situation'.

Terry's mind was buzzing now, working out the conundrum and he was pretty certain from the way the hairs had started to stand up on Dino's neck that his friend was flicking exactly the same thoughts through his equally astute mind.

"Gentlemen, perhaps you would like to explain your situation."

One of the men rose from his seat, trotting over to the trio from Luthan Risk with a strange, uneven gait. His suit, an obviously expensive garment, was pitch black, which made both Dino and Terry instantly wonder if he had called in to secure their services on his way to a funeral. He was middle-aged, with watery little eyes reminiscent of a rodent, but the most striking aspect of his appearance was the fact that he was mostly bald although he was sporting the most impressively bushy eyebrows Terry had ever seen. It was as if the hormones that determined hair growth had all taken a wrong turn somewhere in his internal roadmap of arteries and veins and had delivered their potent message to the patch of hair above his eyes rather than the follicles of his head causing his eyebrows to sprout uncontrollably.

As he approached, he held out a hand, an action which both Terry and Dino mirrored, accepting the proffered limb in a firm handshake. The palm was sweaty and Terry saw Dino surreptitiously wiping his hand on his trousers as their greeter took a few steps back.

"Albert Morris." He bowed his head ever so slightly as he introduced himself, "and my colleague Mr Achim Bernhardt." There was no corresponding bow of the head from his colleague who had remained seated at the table, a stony and unimpressed expression fixed across his face. "It's good to meet you gentlemen, I have to say we've heard quite a lot about you."

"All of it good I hope, Mr Morris."

"But of course, Mr Thorne. But of course." He smiled, which only served to make him look more rat-like than before. "Anyway, down to business. My colleague and myself represent a global computer firm; The Keystroke Corporation. We have most recently been working on a…er…I do have your assurance that this information will remain strictly confidential don't I?" He directed the question to Havery, who had now left Dino and Terry's side and had sat in one of the nearby leather seats.

"Of course Mr Morris. Luthan Risk can assure you that the information you share with us will not be divulged to anyone outside this room."

"Good, good. Where was I? Oh yes. We have most recently been working on a top secret project for the US government to produce a vastly complex encryption algorithm for their internal communications systems. We have gathered the best computer programmers and encryption experts, ironically most of whom have served time in Federal institutions for hacking into government files. These specialists have been gathered together in Tiñuega to write the hard code that would produce the most secure encryption software the world has encountered.

Dino butted in.

"Now, I might be missing the point here but if you're creating a programme to protect government databases against hackers is it really wise to be employing hackers to write it?"

Morris gave a chuckle.

"Yes, you'd think it would be at cross purposes wouldn't you? But each programmer is only responsible for a minute section of code, no-one other than the senior developer knows how it all fits together, he scans each piece of work for intentionally inserted malicious coding before it is included in the software."

Dino nodded, satisfied with the answer, but evidently still sceptical that it could actually work without any glitches.

"The programme has met with a great deal of success and to date approximately thirty percent of departments have adopted our new software. Unfortunately, about a fortnight ago our senior developer was kidnapped and a ransom demand was made."

"He was kidnapped a _fortnight_ ago, but you're only coming to us _now_?" Dino lost him internal battle to keep quiet, earning him a glare from Havery.

"We have been negotiating with the kidnappers via another ransom specialist to secure his release. Unfortunately it seems that another, um, less amiable group has become interested in this man. A group that would doubtless like to extract the information he holds and use it to exploit the United States."

"You're talking terrorists." Terry's phrase was a statement, not a question. But Morris nodded in verification anyway.

"Yes. The K&R people we've been dealing with say they've had nothing but a week of static on the radios; no more negotiating. It sounds like they're getting ready to trade our guy to this terrorist cell. Right now is not about negotiating a ransom, we just need to get him out of there before the whole US Government is thrown into chaos. We've asked around for the best people for the job and your names came up a lot."

"So why come to us? Why not Special Forces?"

"Because of the, ah, political situation developing in the area, Special Forces are reluctant to get involved unless it's absolutely necessary. Actually they gave us your names. You are both ex-military, aren't you."

Both Dino and Terry nodded.

"Most K&R specialists are ex-military Mr Morris."

"Yes, but I'm told you two were the best in your units."

"There is a _secondary option_." It was not Morris that spoke this time, but the man who had remained resolutely still at the table throughout the previous conversation. Achim Bernhardt leaned his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers, bringing his forefingers to meet his chin as he spoke.

"And that would be..?" There was something in the way that Bernhardt had said 'secondary option' that made Terry a little wary of asking for clarification.

"If you feel that the situation is too unstable to attempt an extraction of the cargo then the alternative is to neutralize the threat that his continued incarceration presents." The phrase had clearly been well thought out beforehand in an attempt to keep it ambiguous, although the trio of Luthan Risk personnel understood the meaning loud and clear.

"You mean if we don't think we can get the prisoner out then our secondary mission becomes to neutralize the threat he presents by _killing him_." Dino's face betrayed the utter disgust coursing through his veins, lighting up sections of his brain and suddenly Terry fully understood why he had detected a hint of bitter distaste in the way Havery, their CEO, had introduced them to these representatives of Keystroke Corp. earlier.

"This is only a last resort, of course." Morris, the man with the watery eyes blustered as he correctly translated the expressions on the faces of the men in front of him. His colleague, however, remained almost perfectly straight-faced, _almost_. Terry was sure he saw the corners of his thin lips twitch upwards in a grim smile for the briefest of seconds.

"Yes Mr Paldino, that is _exactly_ what I am saying."

"Then you're looking for mercenaries Mr Bernhardt, not K&R specialists." There was an earthy growl to Dino's voice, that told Terry he was in a very dangerous frame of mind. The kind of mood that usually led to his opponent leaving the vicinity in a body-bag.

"From what I've heard Mr Paldino, you two manage to be a little of both. Mercenaries and negotiators. Diplomacy and violence all wrapped up in one handy little package." The smirk that crossed his face proved he was toying with them, seeing how far he could push them, testing how well trained they were.

Terry surreptitiously placed a calming hand on his friend's arm. But Dino didn't move, fully aware that the businessman seated comfortably at the table was just trying to provoke him. He set his lips into a tight line, refraining from further speech, afraid that if he dared open his mouth that he'd spout a string of expletives that had no place in the boardroom. Terry heard him issue a quiet nasal sound that perfectly illustrated his intense displeasure. Havery had evidently read the warning signs as well, deciding that now would be a good time to remove Dino from Bernhardt's vicinity before he murdered their newest client.

"Gentlemen, if you will excuse us for just a few minutes I need to confer with my colleagues to get their views on whether such a mission is viable." Havery stood from the seat he had taken at the beginning of the meeting and started to usher Dino and Terry back towards the door.

----------------------------------------------------------

"You have got to be fucking _kidding me_." Dino flung the door to Havery's outer office open so hard that it hit the wall with a tremendous bang and made a clear dent in the plaster. "Oh, um, sorry Ma'am." He apologised quickly, his face flushing with embarrassment as he caught the startled squeak that his violent entrance had elicited from Havery's secretary.

"Cynthia, why don't you take ten minutes or so and go get yourself a cup of coffee while I chat with Messrs Thorne and Paldino?" Havery smiled warmly at the secretary in an effort to placate her.

"Yes Sir." She raised herself out of her chair with an incredible amount of dignity, arched her delicate eyebrow to an impressive angle and threw Dino an unimpressed look before she stalked out of the office.

"Oops." Dino muttered.

"Oh don't worry about Cynthia, I'm sure it's nothing she hasn't heard before…or used herself for that matter." He paused for a second; thinking. "Actually she'd probably put you to shame in a contest of foul-mouthed diatribes, she may appear the picture of upper-class elegance but she's an Essex girl born and bred...And no Dino you cannot have her phone number." He had seen the look of interest that instantly sprang to Dino's face, _that_ needed to be stopped right there, before it even started.

Havery moved through the outer office past a set of imposing wooden doors and into his inner sanctum. The inner office was a haven of contemporary interior design, calming colours, elegant furniture and high-tech gadgets. For the second time within thirty minutes Terry and Dino both thought that life for those at the top was sweet. Their examination of the room even pushed the pressing thoughts from the forefront of their minds until Havery cleared his throat, bringing them back to the here and now with a definite bump.

"Gentlemen…"

Dino's brain picked up at exactly the place that it had left off.

"You have got to be fucking _kidding me_."

"Hear me out on this Dino. Normally I wouldn't even bring this kind of project to you for consideration…"

But he didn't get any further as Dino once again interrupted him.

"We're not assassins, we deal with kidnap and ransom, we don't go out to a situation with the express intention of killing the subject…"

"Dino, will you shut the fuck up!" The experience of hearing the normally calm and collected CEO swearing with such vigour served its purpose and Dino instantly fell silent. "Thank-you. I am aware that you are not assassins, believe it or not I have actually read your job descriptions, I _wrote_ the damn job descriptions, so don't lecture me on what your job does and doesn't involve Dino." He fixed his employee with a harsh stare and Dino had the sense to drop his gaze to his feet, his cheeks a little flushed from the reprimand.

"Sorry."

"Can I just ask, Sir, why are you considering taking this contract?" Terry managed, with effort, to wipe the incredulous tone from his voice and phrase his question perfectly politely.

Havery, who had sunk into his large desk chair after admonishing Dino, leant forward, his elbows propped on the desk and his fingers massaging his temples.

"Because despite all their bullshit they're right - no not about how they plan to deal with the situation," he added the last phrase quickly as Dino's head snapped back up, ready for round two, "but when he said you two were the best, they were right. I've seen the dossier; the subject has a family, a wife and two kids. I know that you would do your very best to get him out of there alive. With the secondary option on the table from the very start how many other K&R firms do you think would actually make the effort to get him out with a pulse? It would be quicker and cheaper to just set up a sniper to kill him rather than to go through the whole convoluted rigmarole of trying to free him without a bullet in his skull. I think that if we pass this off to another firm that's exactly what's going to happen."

The truth of his words hit Dino and Terry like a tonne of bricks, he was right, and suddenly they both understood why this had been brought forward for their consideration. Havery, noting their silence and the expressions on their faces, was pleased to see his words had gotten through to them.

"Before I ask you if you are prepared to take on this contract I must warn you that you would be on your own. Because of the secondary option as outlined by the clients, the firm cannot acknowledge any part in this mission; we cannot be seen to endorse any kind of assassination. This transaction would be strictly off the books. The client's fee will, of course, be used to cover your expenses and then the remainder will go directly to you."

Terry and Dino nodded to show that they understood the situation.

"I will leave you two alone to discuss whether you intend to take this contract. I think I'll go and see if Cynthia is alright, and hopefully intercept her before she decides garrotting you would be a suitable punishment."

As Havery stepped out of the door Dino's voice caused him to poke his head back into the office.

"Sir? If we take this contract, _there will not be a secondary option_."

Havery nodded, a knowing smile on his face and continued on his path out of the office.

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4 Into the Storm

**Chapter 4 – Into the Storm.**

"Eduard Milogost, Polish, thirty-four years old. No allergies, no medications, the guy ran a marathon two years ago; so he's in pretty good shape." Terry handed over a glossy print of their subject to Dino along with the employment dossier. "The woman in the picture with him is his wife, Maria. They've been married four years, two children; the youngest had his first birthday just before Eduard left to take up the temporary post in Tiñuega."

It was the standard pre-mission sit down. Every K&R mission started out like this, with the agents familiarising themselves with the victims, perpetrators, local terrain and any political situations that they'd have to deal with. This discussion was a little different from the others that the two friends had shared only in the way that there was no talk about a timeframe or maximum monetary amount for ransom negotiation, as was usually the case. Ransom negotiation had been tried and had failed, their mission now was to go in by stealth or brute force, whichever method would be more successful and take the victim without negotiation. Another slight difference in this sit-down, compared to others was the fact that this conversation was taking place a couple of miles up in the air, as Dino and Terry sat in the comfort of a private jet.

They'd accepted the contract, there was no way they were going to turn it down once they'd thought the possibilities through properly and as much as they didn't like to admit it; Havery had been right. Very few agencies would have any qualms about ending the captive's life if it meant saving time and money. Terry and Dino had made a pact that there would be no plan B – the mission was to get the cargo out alive and they'd do it or they'd die trying, although this pact was on a need to know basis and the two agents had decided that the clients simply didn't need to know.

Now, twelve hours later they were sitting in the back of a private jet headed down to the South American city of Tiñuega. The one concession that Havery had made to this contract being strictly off the firm's books had been to charter them a private plane down to their destination at the company's expense, his way of saying 'good luck'. It was a little strange to think that this was the last help that they could rely on their company for. They'd been out on their own before, but there had always been the possibility of calling for backup, this time though there was no chance of that. When they said they were on their own, they meant it.

Dino took a good look at the photograph before starting to sift through the papers in the dossier.

"Says here he's a computer genius, has been involved in several important projects and his only misdemeanour is a noted caution for phone phreaking when he was seven…What the fuck is _phreaking_?" Dino's face was a picture of confusion.

"Yeah, I wondered that when I read it too, did a bit of research mate." Terry grinned. "Apparently it was the forerunner to hacking, it started off with one blind kid, Joe Engressia who had perfect pitch and worked out if he whistled a certain tone he could access the telephone company's internal trunk line. Other kids later worked out that by using different pitches of whistles they could dial a number through the internal systems and not be charged for their calls."

"Pretty handy when you get chucked out of a bar, you need to call a cab and you got no change."

"I've heard you sing karaoke Dino, you can't hold a pitch while you're sober, so you got no chance when you're drunk and getting kicked out of a bar."

"Hey, I got perfect pitch."

"And you asked who for this assessment? A tone deaf donkey?"

Dino took a breath and Terry tried to waylay his train of thought before he could start murdering whatever song was on his mind.

"You got any intel. on the area Dino?"

"Eh…Yeah, I've been in touch with the local K&R guy that Keystroke Corp. has been dealing with since the subject was snatched. Seriously man, why do these big companies still hire these little local ass-wipes to do their K&R?"

"Because they're cheaper than us, and from our recent experiences I'd say they don't really give a shit if their employees actually make it out alive."

"It's fuckin' criminal." Dino shook his head before continuing. "So anyhow, main local products are guns, ganja and gutter glitter. Or to put it in more eloquent terms; weapons, marijuana and cocaine. Plus some of the local militia have picked up on the trend in the rest of South America for the ransom trade. The local guy, a Señor Fernandez – he's a complete prick, wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, the guy's all about the green." Dino rubbed his forefinger and thumb together in a gesture that suggested 'money'. "He's been coordinating the ransom demands made by the kidnappers, he's got no record of the demands made, hasn't even made tapes of any of the radio transmissions with the kidnappers' negotiator, so all we've got to go on is his word."

"You think he's a liability?"

"I don't know yet. I've only spoken to him once on the phone. He's getting a house organised for us that we can use as a base. I'll go and meet him tonight when we set down in Tiñuega."

-----------------------------

"Fuck, will you just look at that?"

Terry joined Dino in looking out of the small windows of the jet. Below them the city that was their destination lay sprawled out covering the land as far as the eye could see. It was a metropolis, but not in the form that either of the K&R specialists were used to. No high rises reached for the heavens, no powerful office blocks covered in mirrored glass were visible. From their aerial vantage point it seemed like buildings covered every inch of the land. It also seemed that most were one or two story constructions made from sandy coloured materials. Instead of building upwards the city had grown outwards in a haphazard fashion, covering the surrounding landscape, gradually encroaching on farmland.

Dino spread a map out over the table between himself and Terry.

"This part of the city," he drew his finger around an area on the map before pointing it out for real out of the window, "is mostly deserted. Apparently, disease wiped out about ninety percent of the population in this area, whole communities died. In order to escape the disease, survivors moved out of this section of the city, which left a huge swathe of the neighbourhood completely uninhabited. According to our sources it's a virtual ghost-town down there."

"You said _mostly_ deserted, who was crazy enough to go back?"

"Niños del Diablo." Dino replied without a pause.

"The Devil's Children. They sound pleasant."

"Nasty group of fuckers by all accounts. They're the biggest exporters of weapons and drugs from this city. Let's face it, what gang wasn't going to take advantage of an abandoned neighbourhood that they could claim as their own? Reports say they've got a whole black market industry going on there. Buildings specifically designated as weapons manufacturing factories, drug purification premises and others earmarked for narcotic packaging, ready to smuggle the product into the US."

Terry didn't have to ask the question that most people would have asked at this point. The usual reaction was to wonder what the local police were doing about this situation, but Terry knew from his vast amount of experience in these situations that the police were probably making a hefty profit from the drug gangs, a cut of the profits for turning the other cheek.

"Who are they?"

"The original cell was a splinter group from one of the top gangs in Rio. They got a bit too big for their boots, outgrew the constraints and got driven out of the area by a universal coalition of the leaders of Rio's other gangs. First time they've ever issued an order like it." Dino looked up a meaningful expression on his face that suggested they were in for a bumpy ride with this group.

"And now?"

"Now the original cell makes up the gang's generals while the foot soldiers are local bred kids from Tiñuega. Most of the young boys end up with a gun in their hands at some point, the gang is the only local employer with any money, they join up to help out their families and soon find that there's no way out. The lucky ones manage to move on, to make an honest living."

"Let me guess, there isn't a whole lot of luck in Tiñuega." Terry shook his head as he spoke, he knew the cycle, he'd seen it time and time again; kids forced to throw away their childhoods and adopt the role as guerrilla soldiers.

"Sad but true. Most of the kids that join the Niño's ranks aren't lucky enough to get out, they stay there until they're killed. But look at what these kids have lived through, disease has wiped out half the population, leaving soulless places inhabited by no-one but ghosts. Then the gangs came, these kids saw wealth and confidence and mistook it for happiness. Most of them are still just little boys playing very dangerous games."

Terry looked over at his partner and was startled by the passion that he saw in Dino's eyes. He thought over what Dino had just said; _'saw wealth and confidence and mistook it for happiness' _and wondered a little if that wasn't part of Dino's own life, heck, if it wasn't a part of his own life. Terry thought back to why he'd joined the army in the first place all those years ago, the uniform, the thrill, the admiring looks from the pretty girls and then he'd asked to be transferred to an English regiment, why? Because he was bored, he wanted to see real, front-line action. Was he happy with what he'd become? What had the client from Keystroke corporation said to them? _'A mixture of diplomacy and violence in one handy little_ _package'_, the way he'd said it suggested they were devoid of any kind of feelings; any sort of conscience, was that what he'd become? There was blood on his hands; that much he knew for certain, perhaps he was still just a little boy at heart, a little boy playing a dangerous game, just like Dino had said. He pushed the thought from his mind slightly fearful of the truths he was dredging up.

"Why haven't we heard about this group before?"

Dino was silent a minute before he answered, he'd been watching his friend and partner as he'd drifted into his own little world. _Yes_, he thought, _Terry's conscience was going to be something he'd have to watch out for in the future._

"Like I said, their main income is from the guns and drugs, they're new to the K&R world."

"Fuck."

"Yeah. Just what I thought. Inexperienced pricks with guns and itchy trigger fingers."

Both men lapsed into another brief silence. New groups were notoriously difficult to handle. They hadn't got the experience in negotiating to know how the system worked, they didn't know how to look after their prisoners and they were more than likely to kill their first few victims just as a way of showing the world that they meant business. All things taken into consideration, both Terry and Dino knew they were in for a tough time.

"Any positive identification that 'Niños' is actually the group holding Milogost?" Terry asked, holding out on the slim hope that there were two rival groups in the area and as if by some stroke of pure luck a more experienced group might have their cargo.

"No chance hoping for another gang, pal," Dino seemed to read his friend's mind, "The Niños wiped out their rivals as soon as they settled down in Tiñuega. I got a few sources in the city that're tellin' me the same thing; that the gang members are all crowing bout a big scam to do with some American electronics firm."

"Sounds about right to me mate. Any intel on where-abouts they're holding him."

"I gotta wait til we get into the city and talk with the people that've been working out here to find out any more. Besides, you packed the surveillance gear right?" A nod from Terry gave him an affirmative answer. "Then even if they can't tell us where he's being held it won't take us long to locate him."

Both men felt the pressure in their ears and reached to buckle their safety belts as the jet started to descend, preparing to land at the nearest airport.

-------------------------------------------

They'd landed smoothly and had made their way into the city of Tiñuega, quickly locating the building that the local K&R guy had secured for them as their headquarters for the duration of their stay. Dino had been out once to meet with some of his local informants, gleaning a great deal of information in the process about the area and the people they would be dealing with. Now, as night began to fall and the sounds of the city began to change, the two men completed the task of unpacking the various trunks of equipment that they'd bought with them and readied themselves for the first reconnaissance mission that they'd make into hostile territory under cover of darkness.

"Fifty bucks says I find him before you. Deal?"

"Deal."

Dino spat on his hand and stretched it out towards Terry waiting for him to shake it.

"Dino, mate, you couldn't make me do that in the forces, I aint gonna start now." Terry cast an unimpressed look down at Dino's hand. "Wipe your hand you dirty bastard."

Dino grinned and swiped the palm of his hand across the leg of his pants leaving a damp trail of saliva behind.

"Scared you might catch something Ter?"

"Too bloody right, I don't know where you've fuckin' been." He paused. "Actually, that's not right, it's because I know where you've been that I'm pretty sure I'll catch something." He shook the redhead's now dry hand.

That had been earlier, just before they'd headed out into the deserted section of the city kitted out with a host of surveillance equipment, ready to scout the neighbourhood and find the gang's headquarters and their illusive target. Now it was twelve hours later and the pair were stomping wearily back into the house illuminated by the early morning light. Terry had a scowl fixed on his face. Dino on the other hand was grinning widely, barely able to stop himself laughing out loud.

"Dino, there is no fucking chance I'm paying out."

"Why? You agreed on the deal, I spotted 'em first I win the bet." Dino shoved Terry on the shoulder as they started to climb the stairs that would take them to the second storey.

"You didn't mention when you made the bet that your local contact had already told you where they were keeping him a prisoner."

"You didn't ask." Dino attempted to keep a straight face and failed miserably.

"Dino," Terry growled. "I let you hustle people when your playing pool or poker, for my sins I even help you occasionally, but I'll be damned if you're gonna hustle _me_ out of fifty bucks."

"Spoilsport. Fair enough, I'll let you off the bet if you cook breakfast."

"I _always_ cook. I may have been in the SAS, but I'm still not brave enough to eat your cooking Dino. Oh and while we're on the subject of culinary expertise – a little pointer for you; toast's natural colour is not black."

"So that's where I've been going wrong."

"God help the woman you decide to settle down with."

"Hey! Any woman'd be lucky to have me."

"Fuckin' cursed more like."

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5 Making Plans

**Chapter 5 – Making Plans.**

A large scale map of the city was spread across the table in the middle of the room and Terry and Dino were both bent low, studying possible escape routes following the audacious rescue attempt they were planning. The paper surface of the map was covered in red arrows and annotations detailing the pros and cons of each route. Further out, in areas that showed a sparser concentration of buildings there were three large circles, each marked with the letters 'LZ', which stood for 'Landing Zone' and were the areas that they had identified as possible sites that a helicopter could comfortably set down within the otherwise built up neighbourhoods. Terry and Dino had initially identified about ten possible areas on the map the day that they had arrived and had later ventured out into the city to perform a little more reconnaissance and determine whether these locations were genuinely viable. They'd had to ditch seven of the sites as possibilities, either the terrain was too precarious for even a helicopter to set down, overhead cables made it impossible for a safe landing or the site was being used as an impromptu marketplace.

In one of the locales they checked out, colourful market stalls filled the area. The noise and smell was incredible, it seemed that every fruit and vegetable known to man was piled high in baskets alongside animals of all shapes and sizes that were being bartered for. Something about Dino had evidently insulted the internal thought processes of one of the goats that were being sold. The hulking great animal had broken free of its tether and charged directly at Dino, ignoring shouts and wafts from onlookers and nearly knocking him down. Luckily his reflexes, honed by years of military training, had sent him clambering up a telegraph pole at lightening speed and refused to come down until the goat was either tied up again or Dino's preferred course of action; _'turned into kebab meat'_. Terry briefly considered buying the animal just to torture his friend, saying that the creature had the best judge of character he'd encountered in a long time, a suggestion which had earned him a non-too delicate punch and a string of expletives from his colleague. Terry filed the event away in his brain, deciding that it would come in useful for later opportunities to take the piss out of his far too cocky partner.

Rampaging goat aside though, at least at the end of their scouting trip they'd been left with three possible landing zones out of their original ten, which was a good enough number to have, providing one main site and two backups. They were well spread out and the pair felt confident that they could use any one of the three. Their preferred zone, 'LZ1' was the closest to the kidnappers' hideout. It was still going to be a fair trek through the abandoned part of the city to get there, but 'LZ2', their second site was over double the distance and was slightly riskier in that they would be required to actually traverse a heavily inhabited section of the city and there could be no way of knowing if the population would help them or hinder them once they were being pursued by heavily armed gang members. Besides, the uncertain condition of their cargo was a big issue. He was likely to be malnourished, dehydrated and delirious, meaning that the less distance they had to travel with him in tow the better.

Since the first night they'd arrived in the city and had located the gang's main headquarters where they were holding the computer genius hostage Terry and Dino had made more regular forays into the area, watching the gang members, getting to know their daily schedules as well as taking a good look at the wider area. Now they were pretty comfortable with the terrain and confident that they had a variety of escape routes available to them should they be required. All that needed to be done now was get their packs together, with any equipment they would need to pull off the job and set a time and date to embark on their risky mission.

-----------------

Right now, other than a few candles which had been placed around the room, the rest of the building was in darkness; in fact the entire neighbourhood was in darkness. About two hours ago all the power had gone off. Dino and Terry had poked their heads out of the window as the lights had flickered out and found that there was no power no only in the nearby streets, but anywhere in the city. Neither of them were particularly concerned by this turn of events. For Dino, who had grown up in New York with its constant rolling blackouts, this was just a throwback to his youth and along with the fact that both men had been deployed on special ops for their respective armed forces, operations which had sent them deep into enemy territory where the lack of a regular power supply was not so much a risk as a certainty, they were both pretty comfortable with the situation.

As the flame closest to them guttered and went out, Dino reached into a bag under the table and pulled out another candle. He slotted it into the holder and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, silver zippo lighter. He flicked the lid open and one strong stroke on the thumbwheel sparked the flint and bought a flame to the top of the lighter. Dino held it to the wick of the new candle until the flame slid lazily from the lighter to the candle.

"Jeez, you still got that old thing Dino?" Terry asked, nodding his head towards the lighter.

"Yeah. Still workin', good as ever." Dino gave the lighter a little shake.

"That's gotta be like, what? Ten years ago?"

"Yep, Kosovo."

Terry caught the lighter as Dino tossed it lightly over to him and ran his fingers over the dented case.

It had been their first mission together as K&R experts, the first mission they'd worked together since the military operation in Chile where they had met and neither really knew what to expect. They'd had all the training, heard the stories from the other agents that Luthan Risk had employed, but nothing prepared you for your first gig, stepping off a plane and into the hostile unknown. Their mission had been to free a foreign diplomat who had been captured by the forerunners of a group that would emerge in the late 1990s as the Kosovo Liberation Army, or the KLA. Dino had swiped the lighter from the group's headquarters as they'd freed their target and dropped it into one of the chest pockets on his army jacket. As they'd made a run for it they'd been spotted by a lone rebel fighter and a shower of bullets had rained down on them from the semi-automatic weapon in his grasp. They'd pushed their cargo into a sheltered spot and fired back. In another hail of projectiles Terry had seen Dino go down and thought him dead. It wasn't until he'd managed to neutralize the threat by plugging a bullet in the shooter's head that he'd had the chance to go back for his partner. What he'd found was amazing; Dino was propped up on his elbows, gasping for air and massaging his chest, he thrust a hand into a pocket and pulled out the lighter he'd liberated just minutes earlier from the enemy headquarters and found a small calibre slug sticking out of the side of the metal lighter, a bullet that would undoubtedly have pierced his heart if the lighter hadn't got in the way. When he'd got back to the US after the mission had been successfully completed he'd had the internal parts replaced and had had the case patched up so it would be useable and now he carried it with him on every mission, a talisman and a reminder how luck played a big part in this business; everyone needed a lucky charm. In a more light-hearted manner Dino also used it as a justification to continue his happy-go-lucky thieving ways, saying that if he hadn't pocketed the lighter on that first mission then he'd be six feet under by now, as if some greater power had given him the go ahead to relieve rebels of their valuables.

Terry tossed the lighter back over to his friend.

"So, we set to do this then?"

"You got the transport out of here sorted?"

"You bet your ass."

"Then we're ready. We hit them in thirty-six hours time."

------------------------------------

There was a sharp knocking at the door. Dino's head snapped up and his whole body froze in the crouched position. Terry had gone out to take one last scout around the area before their mission went live the next morning, but he wasn't likely to knock on the door when he came back and it wasn't as if they'd invited anyone around for tea and cakes. He grabbed a handgun from the kit he was preparing and pulled the slide back, checking the gun was armed. He walked slowly towards the door, one foot being placed purposely in front of the other, making sure he avoided the squeaky floorboards that he'd made a mental map of during their time in the house. When he reached the door he stood with his back to the wall for a second before rolling around and taking a look through a small hole that he'd drilled at about head height for just this purpose. Outside he saw Arturo Fernandez lifting his fist, ready to knock on the door again. Dino's heart rate calmed seeing a familiar face, rather than the gang of rebels armed to the teeth that he had expected to find, although now he thought about it an armed gang of rebels would hardly have knocked politely on the door before attacking either. He pulled the catch back on the door and yanked it open just as Arturo was about to rap his knuckles on the wood. The sudden disappearance of the wooden door made Arturo stumble forward a little and it took him a few seconds to regain his composure.

"Come in Arturo. What little gems of information do you have for me today?"

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to check up on how you're doing." He took a look around at the mostly prepared kits, with weapons, ammunition and radios laid out in rows organised with military precision and whistled. "Looks like you're getting ready to go in Dino."

"Yep. Sooner we can rescue the poor bastard sooner I get to escape from this shit-hole. No offence meant."

"None taken. Tiñuega might be my home city, but as soon as I get a bit of money behind me I'm getting out. I got a nice place all picked out up in Tecala. More business opportunities up there. Less disease." Arturo wandered over to the maps that covered one wall of the room. He began to study one map in particular, the one that showed the alternative landing zones that Terry and Dino had decided on.

"You got a helicopter picking you up Dino?"

"You bet your ass. Only way to travel in this line of work."

"Mmm. I wouldn't know." He mused, a curious look passing over his face. Suddenly he spun around, his face blank, devoid of the expression that had just occupied it. "Anyway, I should go, leave you to finish making your preparations. Good luck."

Dino watched Arturo's retreating back as he left the building with little more than a backwards glance and a wave. There was something strange about his rather stilted visit, which apparently had no purpose which when considered in conjunction with his abrupt departure produced a tiny suspicion that niggled at Dino's conscience, but Dino pushed the thought out of his mind, concentrating on the upcoming mission instead. Arturo always seemed a little odd to him anyway, perhaps the heat was getting to him.

He let the nagging thoughts drift away, replacing it with the more immediate worry; _we hit them in thirty-six hours time._

To be continued…


	6. Chapter 6 Good to Go

**Chapter 6 – Good To Go.**

Thirty-six hours had drifted away as if it were nothing more than a five minute interlude. The early morning sunlight was soft and calming. It blanketed everything in a warm glow, bringing the temperature up to a more bearable level from the uncharacteristic freezing point that it had dropped to in the darkness of the night. Terry and Dino lay on their stomachs on a rooftop, they'd been in place for hours, wanting to get as close to the gang's headquarters as they could whilst still covered by darkness. The plan was to wait until the majority of the gang's leaders followed their usual routine and left for the weapon and drug factories as the K&R experts had seen them do each morning on their reconnaissance forays. This left a greatly reduced number of rebels at the base and so long as Dino and Terry managed to avoid anyone calling for backup would make their task a whole lot easier. The aim was to get inside the building as quietly as possible, via an open section of the roof which would allow them to drop down into a courtyard in the centre of the base and a point from which to investigate where exactly the hostage was being kept.

There was some yelling and laughing as a group of heavily armed men left the headquarters via the front door, one of them telling a filthy joke in Spanish as they went. Dino counted fourteen men altogether, good, that was two more than they'd seen on previous surveillance, which meant that there were even fewer gang members still left in the house. Dino let the group get out of sight before he looked over at Terry, who nodded his head, indicating that they were good to go and the pair raised themselves up into a crouch, both feeling their muscles protesting at the sudden movement after their prolonged period of inactivity. They made their way over to the open section of roof, pausing at the edge to allow them to glance down, making sure that there was no-one to be seen below.

Dino secured a grappling hook to a ledge and dropped the attached rope down into the courtyard. He clambered over the edge of the roof and braced his weight against the rope, walking himself backwards down the wall of the building. He reached the bottom and stepped away, seeing Terry's face appearing over the side he raised his hand and gave him the 'ok' signal. The Aussie followed his friend's actions and soon joined him in the courtyard. Dino pointed towards Terry before holding his hand out, palm vertical, directing Terry in one direction and then pointed towards himself, indicating that he was going in the opposite direction. Terry flashed him a thumbs up and then held his hand up in front of him, fingers outstretched, following this signal by pointing at the floor to indicate that they should search in their allotted directions for five minutes before meeting back at this point. Dino nodded and the pair split up, pulling guns out of their holsters; entering the unknown.

Terry headed into the dark shadows of the building in the direction that Dino had indicated and found himself in a thin corridor that skirted the courtyard, a row of small doors running down one side. A noise made him swing around, pointing his weapon in the direction that the noise had come from and halfway down the corridor he found a small mouse sitting on its hind legs, twitching its nose in Terry's direction.

"Bloody rodents." He whispered, lowering his weapon for a second.

Working his way along the corridor he found only storerooms full of junk, some of which were covered in about an inch of dust with no signs of any disturbance in the dirt layer. This suggested that no-one had used these rooms in quite some time. Terry skirted the edge of the corridor making sure he didn't leave any of his own footprints in the layer of accumulated grime. He checked his watch, he had another couple of minutes before he needed to check in with Dino. Terry continued his search down the corridor.

As planned, the pair met back in the courtyard five minutes after they had parted. Their conversation was whispered.

"I got nothing mate. Just a whole lot of empty rooms."

"I got a locked room with a single guard on the door. I think I struck gold."

"Ok, let's get him out."

Dino crept slowly and silently back into the building with Terry following closely behind, both men maintained a tight grip on their weapons as they moved along, keeping their backs firmly to the wall. As Dino came to a corner he stopped and turned his head back towards Terry, pointing to his eyes with the forefinger and middle fingers of his left hand and then to the corner indicating for his partner to take a quick look. Terry moved his head slowly so that a sudden movement wouldn't alert anyone around the corner to their presence. In the corridor beyond he saw one gang member leaning back on the wall, clearly on guard. As Terry drew his head back again he nodded to Dino to confirm what the redhead had told him in the courtyard and to show he agreed with his partner's suspicions that behind the door they would find their target; Eduard Milogost.

Dino lowered his weapon and tucked it into a holster at his side, mouthing the words _'cover me'_ to Terry. Then he dipped his own head around the corner and, seeing the guard turned in the opposite direction, his hand cupped in front of his face as he lit a cigarette, slipped from behind his cover and into the open. Dino saw the light flare in the guard's hand, illuminating the sharp angles of his face as he brought a flame to meet the end of the cigarette. In three quick steps Dino came up directly behind him and in a sudden movement, before the guard even noticed there was anyone there or had a chance to turn around there was a loud crack as the K&R specialist twisted his neck with such a sharp force that his spinal column was instantly snapped. Dino caught him as he crumpled, looping his arms underneath the dead man's armpits so that he could drop him to the ground almost silently, propping him up against the wall.

The fact that he had just alleviated a man of his life didn't even register as a blip on Dino's conscience as he turned directly from the corpse towards the locked door. A quick shove with his hand made the door bow inwards slightly and he glanced quickly towards Terry who had now come out from his cover behind the wall. The glance passed a message between the pair that the door wasn't going to prove much of an obstacle. Dino placed a shoulder up against the wooden door and with a quick shove splintered the wood around the lock and sent the door swinging inwards. Terry was ready, moving swiftly past Dino, covering all corners of the room with his firearm to make sure there was no threat contained within the room. The first thing to hit him was the smell; an appalling stench of human decay. The place stank with the combined smells of urine, faeces and vomit, highlighted with an undertone of sweat.

"Clear." Terry announced and Dino entered the room, dragging the body of the dead guard behind him, dumping him unceremoniously in a corner.

"Fuck that stinks."

"Eloquent. Hand me your torch."

The space was dark, the light that entered from the door they had just broken through was only enough to illuminate about a metre or so into the room, the rest was cast into shadow. Terry could make out vague, immobile shapes but nothing clear.

Dino pulled his torch from his pack and flicked the switch to turn it on. He handed the light source to Terry, who brought it up so that the beam of light shone along the barrel of his gun. A sweep of most of the room illuminated plain stone walls, nothing more, but then as he came to the last corner he found a huddled form. At first it looked like a pile of rags that had been dumped in a heap. It wasn't until the pile started to shudder that Terry realised that in amongst the material was a human being. He stepped forward and poked the heap with his boot, an action that elicited a weak moan.

"Mr Milogost? Eduard Milogost?"

"Leave me. _Please_." The voice was faint and seemed to be devoid of all hope.

"Mr Milogost, we can't leave you. We're here to take you home." Now Terry was kneeling down next to the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. He felt Milogost tense at the contact and then he lifted his head. It was the eyes that struck Terry the most, pained, dead eyes that spoke of an endless torrent of torture and neglect but even as he watched those eyes, he could see the spark of hope returning. Initially he blinked, using his arm to shade his eyes, unused to bright light after being kept in a dark room for about a month.

"Can you stand? Walk?"

"I don't know; I haven't tried for a long time."

"Now would be a good time to try. Terry we have to get out of here." Dino was standing guard at the door as he spoke, occasionally taking the chance to glance out into the corridor, listening for any noise that might indicate someone approaching.

Terry nodded, acknowledging that they were running out of time.

"You're for real?" Milogost whispered, doubting his own eyes and ears.

"We're for real mate." Terry confirmed.

Eduard struggled to his feet and now both Terry and Dino could see how different he looked from the photograph that had been included in his dossier. Terry estimated he had lost a good deal of his body-weight and was in the process of growing a ragged beard. His skin was filthy, caked in the accumulated dirt of weeks without soap and water. As he stood he stumbled on the first step, but became progressively more confident with each attempt, an impressive feat considering how emaciated his muscle mass must have become.

"We're good to go." Terry called over to Dino but any further communication was silenced by a hand movement from his friend.

"Stay." Terry whispered to Milogost before he took up a position similar to Dino's on the other side of the door.

"What d'you hear Dino?"

"There's movement not too far away, don't think it's anything to worry…" His phrase was cut off as clearly audible shouting came from the direction of the courtyard. From the sound of it someone had discovered the rope that they'd used as their entry method.

"Fuck, they just found our exit plan." Dino swore, knowing that their time had just been cut very short and the likelihood of getting out without a fight was now almost negligible.

The shouting was getting louder now; coming closer by the second.

"Julio? Julio?..." The voice came from the corridor outside the room, they were clearly looking for the guard who had been stationed at the door. "Mire la puerta."

"Fuck." Dino repeated the obscenity with even more venom than before. "They know the guard's missing and they've seen the door's broken."

"Time to go loud mate?"

"Time to go loud."

"What's going on?" Milogost asked from the depths of the room.

"They've found our escape route."

"So what happens now?"

"Now we go out the front door." Dino responded with a smile as he checked his gun and cocked the weapon ready to fire.

"It's not subtle, but it works." Terry shrugged his shoulders as he directed his comment towards Milogost. "Go for it." Terry nodded at his colleague.

Dino pulled what was left of the door inwards and in one swift movement stepped out into the corridor sweeping his weapon over the open space, firing three bullets as he saw gang members just a metre or so away. His sudden appearance took them by surprise, not giving them the chance to fire the vicious looking guns that they each carried. Three bodies crumpled to the ground instantly.

"Three shots; three kills Ter. Beat that."

"Lucky bastard. We clear to move?"

"For the moment. Get moving Terry."

Terry turned to Milogost.

"Stay between us, don't stop, don't deviate from our path, no matter what." Eduard nodded his understanding and stepped out of the room behind Dino with Terry following closely behind so that they were sandwiched together.

Terry took the lead hoping and praying that he was going in the right direction. Their reconnaissance of the building previous to today had given them a good idea which direction they needed to go to get out, but they could never be certain whether any of the corridors they took would turn out to be a dead end.

Just as the front door came into view a noise from a corridor leading off their main route made Dino turn to find a lone rebel pointing a revolver at him, he fired his own weapon but not fast enough and Dino felt the intense, white-hot pain as a bullet sunk itself into the flesh of his upper arm on his left side, his own shot went wide due to the jolt of being shot and completely missed his would-be assassin.

"Fuck." He hissed as the pain bit into his nervous system. He pushed the pain to one side focussing all his attention on the job at hand. Instantly steadying his gun in his right hand and fired off two more shots catching his attacker square between the eyes, killing him instantly.

Terry had felt the shockwave from the shot as it echoed in the confined corridor and out of the corner of his eye had seen Dino recoil as the bullet gouged a channel into muscle. Now he saw the blood dripping from his friend's arm, the pain etched into his face and the determined expression as the redhead fought the agony that was undoubtedly coursing through his body.

"Dino, you ok mate?" He instantly cursed himself for the stupidity of his comment, the man had just been shot, of course he wasn't ok.

"Oh I'm just peachy." Dino responded through gritted teeth, his answer dripping in sarcasm. "It's like a walk in the park." He paused and took a deep breath. Terry could see that he was calming his mind and mastering the pain. "Let's get the hell out of here and we'll do the damage control later."

They met only a few more armed guards on their progress towards the exit, swiftly dispatching them. As the huge wooden door came into sight Terry found himself giving a sigh of relief. He pulled an automatic weapon from across his shoulders and fired a stream of ammunition into the wood surrounding the hinges causing the door to buckle before they even reached it.

"Home and dry mate, home and dry."

"Not yet. When I get on that chopper, then I'll start the celebration. 'Til then this could all go very wrong."

He couldn't begin to imagine how right he was.

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7 Going Down Fighting

**Chapter 7 – Going Down Fighting.**

_Fuck, that had hurt._ Dino thought as he took a quick glance down to the exposed flesh of his upper arm to survey the damage that the bullet had done. He bore scars on various parts of his body where he'd been the victim of a well aimed bullet before, but his one for some reason worried him more than any other injury he had sustained in the past. Perhaps it was the fact that when he'd taken previous gun shot wounds he'd been tended to within a short space of time by army medics, now he was out in the back of beyond, a city that rivalled the third world for its lack of facilities. There would be no medical attention for at least another couple of hours, and that was if he was lucky. Perhaps it was something to do with this feeling in his gut that told him something was going to go wrong. Directly following the shot, he'd sucked up the agony and continued fighting, his desperate will to survive overriding his pain receptors. Now, as they ran through the backstreets of Tiñuega, he found his mind constantly being pulled back to the gaping hole in his flesh. He stopped for just a second when he deemed it safe to do so and ripped a strip of white cotton material from the bottom of the t-shirt he wore underneath his sand coloured army shirt. He quickly looped it around the top of his arm and twisted it into a knot which he pulled taught with his teeth, providing himself with a half-bandage, half-tourniquet, which would hopefully quell the steady blood-flow from the wound. With this makeshift measure completed he was ready to continue with the mission.

Dino pulled the struggling figure of Eduard Milogost along the deserted back streets. Streets in the more prosperous areas of the city had looked no better than a slum, so here, in what Dino had taken to calling 'the arse-end of the city', the area was in an appalling state. Rubbish lay rotting everywhere, an army of rats scurried back and forth; not in the slightest bit afraid of a human presence. The smell was overpowering, and Dino had had to mentally force himself to breathe through his mouth for fear that the stench would trigger his gag reflex. He'd smelt some horrible things during his life; he'd been in the special forces, had men blown apart within feet of where he stood, but nothing he had experienced came close to the smell of this place which was oozing with the foul and fetid reek of human decay. Eduard's time in captivity, even such a short period by usual standards had left him with wasted muscles and on the verge of starvation, it seemed amazing that this much damage to the human body could occur in such a short period of time, but when you considered the ever-present stifling heat of the Tiñuegan Summer and Eduard's range of injuries, presumably sustained when he was first kidnapped, the deterioration was simply a normal progression exacerbated by the extreme conditions. Usually, the more organised groups that obtained their income for ransom demands knew how to take care of their prisoners. They were not perhaps well fed and cared for, but at least they had enough nourishment to survive, enough basic hygiene to make sure that they couldn't contract some God awful disease. The amateur status of the Tiñuegan gang was painfully obvious from the moment they had laid eyes on Eduard, he had basically been shoved in a room and allowed to rapidly deteriorate. If they didn't get him to a hospital sometime in the next twenty-four hours Dino had no doubt that this man wouldn't see another sunrise.

He pushed Eduard into a doorway where Terry was already concealed. They were moving through the neighbourhood in jolts, Terry would scout ahead, hiding himself in amongst the shadows and then signal the all clear for Dino to follow on behind which took a little longer because he was slowed by the presence of his unsteady cargo.

"I don't like it Terry, it's too quiet. They should have realised we're gone by now, called for reinforcements. This whole place should be alive with creeps trying to fill us full of lead." It was true, survivors from headquarters should have sent a message to the generals based at the factories within minutes of the first shot being fired, bringing a small army of rebels to join the fight. But since they'd run into the streets with cargo in tow they'd seen no-one and heard nothing. It was eerie and just too damn quiet. Something was wrong.

"You just don't like leaving a place without pissing off a majority of the population." Terry grinned.

"Yeah, it insults my very being not to have to shoot at least fifty of the little bastards. I still say it's too quiet though."

"You still doin' ok mate?" Dino was looking paler now and Terry could see a faint outline of blood as it started to seep through the makeshift bandage.

"Yeah, I'm fuckin' wonderful man and I'll be even better when we get our asses in that chopper. Keep movin'."

Terry had tried reasoning with his friend to let him take care of the hostage, but Dino had refused, pointing out that Terry was more alert and faster as a look-out. If he encountered any problems up ahead he could deal with it before Dino caught up with him.

Terry nodded and switched his attention back to the surrounding area, keeping his finger lightly on the trigger of the AK47 he was brandishing. He took a brief look out of the sheltered spot and then headed off to the next safe point.

As soon as Dino saw him duck into the next alcove some distance down the street and heard the quiet signal he once again began pushing Eduard forward, cajoling him to move. Halfway to their next safe refuge Eduard stumbled and Dino heard the sharp crack as a bone snapped. It left the man writhing in pain, although thankfully silent due to some amazing self control.

"Shit." Dino cursed quietly. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops of this shit-hole, but until they managed to get the cargo clear of the area he needed to stay calm, in control and above all quiet for fear of attracting unwanted attention. Dino raised a fist in Terry's direction to tell him to stay put in his shelter and that he'd deal with the problem himself. He could see his partner itching to come and lend a hand, but he trusted Dino enough to respect his command and advanced no further than the edge of the shadowed area.

Dino crouched down, trying to pull Eduard to his feet once more, but the impossible angle that his foot was hanging in told him that it wouldn't be able to support his weight any further. Instead, Dino holstered his firearm and pulled the injured man over his shoulders, feeling his thigh muscles protest at lifting extra weight when he was already reaching exhaustion levels. Luckily Dino's military training had given him the mental and physical ability to push through the pain and continue to run onwards. He steadied his human cargo, one arm holding the man's wrist, the other grasping onto the uninjured ankle, carrying him across his shoulders.

"I can't keep this up much longer pal." He finally admitted in a whisper as he reached Terry's position. "Where's the fucking bird?" Terry could see Dino's face strained as he tried to listen out for the sound of the helicopter.

"It's on its way, mate. Hang in there. Just another couple hundred metres then we turn right. LZ1's just beyond those buildings."

"Y'know what? I've decided I really don't like this place."

"Go figure." Terry chuckled. Looking at his friend now he could see the extra exertion of carrying Eduard was making the blood flow faster from the bullet wound and the makeshift bandage on Dino's arm was now painted a vibrant red. "Give him to me." He motioned towards Eduard, who had apparently passed out from the pain of his broken ankle.

"No. Keep moving." Dino refused to look at his partner, staring instead along the road that lay ahead.

"Dino, stop playing the stupid fucking hero and give him to me." Terry's command was growled and left no doubt that he was serious.

Dino relented when he saw the determined look in Terry's eyes and passed over the hostage's limp form. Terry handed Dino the assault rifle and poked his head out of their sheltered position, checking for movement anywhere around.

Nothing. Good.

As they rounded the last shack and approached the waste ground that lay ahead they could just about make out the steady _thump-thump-thump_ of a helicopter's blades as it cut a path through the thick, polluted and humid air. Terry was sure he heard Dino behind him mutter something like _'about fucking time'_ and his face broke into a grin.

"Home and dry mate, home and dry."

The walkie-talkie attached to Terry's belt crackled into life.

"Ground team, this is Hell Bird One. Ground Team do you copy?"

Terry's hands were full with steadying the hostage on his shoulders, he turned his body so that Dino could grab the radio. Dino depressed the broadcast button and lifted it to his mouth.

"Hell Bird One this is Ground Team. We're here you big beautiful bastard. Angel, I've never been so pleased to hear your voice, you pussy."

"Ground Team, be advised that I can still turn this bird around and leave you stranded in the middle of this shit-hole. Be nice Dino." The response crackled out, bringing a smile to Terry's face.

"Yes Sir!" Dino swapped the radio to his injured arm and saluted with his good arm in the direction of the now visible chopper and laughter could be heard echoing out from the radio.

Within seconds the humungous carriage of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was hovering just a few metres above their heads, the thundering blades rotating at a mind-boggling rate, the downdraft throwing debris out in a circle, away from the chosen land site. The pressure it exerted was an awesome experience. The pilot managed to lower the beast but was then forced to lift it again as a cross wind threatened to make them drift perilously close to the Ground Team.

Something in the near distance caught Dino's eye and he looked up to see figures moving on the edges of the waste ground. What had caught his eye specifically was the sunlight shining off the glass of a viewfinder, a viewfinder that just happened to be attached to an incredibly vicious looking rocket propelled grenade launcher.

"Get that fucking bird down. NOW." He screamed into the radio, although it was probable that the hammering of the rotors would drown out anything he said. Dino grabbed Terry's jaw in his right hand and swivelled his head to look towards the oncoming troops so he would be aware of the imminent danger.

"Fuck."

The chopper came down lower and Terry was finally able to push the still unconscious body of their cargo into the body of the machine helped by a military figure inside. Terry grabbed at one of the handholds just inside the door and heaved himself up, feeling the strong hands of the guy inside the helicopter grab onto his belt and pull, this final burst of momentum pushed him over the pivot and he found himself suddenly lying on the floor of the chopper.

He turned, kneeling at the edge of the vehicle, extending a hand towards Dino who was currently firing off sprays of bullets from the AK in his hands towards the approaching enemy. Terry felt the presence of one of the chopper crew kneeling beside him, he looked over and recognised one of Dino's old Hell Bird buddies that they'd met a couple of weeks ago as the Hercules had airlifted them out of Mexico, mirroring his own actions, hands reaching towards Dino. Scanning his brain, Terry matched a name to the face; Bird Dog.

Looking down, he saw Dino swing the assault rifle around his shoulders and turn towards the outstretched hands. Terry grabbed his right and watched Dino grimace as Bird Dog grabbed his injured left arm, hauling him up. Suddenly there was a 'crack' so loud that it could be heard clearly above the rotors, it was followed by a short whistle and then the world went orange as a grenade exploded just metres away from the chopper. The resulting explosion threw a blast of hot air in the aircraft's direction and caused the airborne vehicle to shudder violently and bank dangerously. Angel, at the controls, fought to regain his power over the beast as it jerked and shook. The violent movement jarred Dino's hand free from Bird Dog's grip and he was left dangling in mid-air held only by Terry's grasp but despite his best efforts he could feel his friend start to slip.

"Hang on Dino." He yelled, but to no avail, and Terry let out a sharp cry of "No!" as his grip failed and he watched Dino fall back to the dusty earth, his body crumpling as he hit the ground and remaining still. "Take us back down! NOW!" Terry yelled in the direction of the pilot, but instead they were forced to pull up sharply as another grenade detonated below. Terry looked out, relieved to see that the grenade had exploded far enough away from his partner that the only effect it had was to cover him in a layer of dirt.

He pulled himself to the edge of the hawk's floor and prepared to jump. But before he could launch himself into the air he felt a strong hand pulling him back.

"Don't be a fucking fool. If you jump from this height you'll be killed by the impact." He instantly saw the logic in what Bird-Dog was saying, but his brain screamed _'to hell with the risk, that's Dino down there'_.

"I'm not leaving him."

"Terry, we have to. He's a stubborn bastard and he's strong, he'll make it. Right now, we need to prioritise and get the hostage to safety. We'll deal with Dino later."

"You saw those bastards down there, he might not have a later. I can't leave him there to die."

"You _will_ leave him, you don't have a choice." He shook Terry hard by the shoulders. "He saved my life, you know it kills me to do this too. If he makes it, we'll damn well go get him, but if he doesn't make it, then I guarantee he'll go down fighting."

The Black Hawk chopper rose rapidly and banked away from the waste ground that should have been their rescue zone, one man short of its intended cargo. Terry leaned out, hanging onto the handholds in the open doorway, trying to keep the figure of his friend in his sights for as long as possible.

To be continued…


	8. Chapter 8 Consciousness Sucks

**A/N – Once again I apologise wholeheartedly for my ignorance of the Spanish language – Which I'm fairly certain I've butchered here.**

**Chapter 8 – Consciousness Sucks.**

"Fuck." Dino muttered the obscenity to the pitch black, foul smelling air that surrounded him. His entire body hurt, but on the up-side he could no longer differentiate the stinging pain from the bullet in his arm from the rest of the pain that lay across his body like a blanket. And the good news was that the gun shot wound had apparently stopped bleeding of its own accord, at least he presumed it had stopped bleeding, he couldn't feel any wet blood right now and he was alive, which he guessed wouldn't be the case if he was still losing blood at the same rate he had been earlier.

He tried to put together a picture of what had happened, he remembered the helicopter, remembered Terry and Bird-Dog grabbing his arms, then he remembered falling, watching the chopper get smaller as he fell and then…nothing…until about ten minutes ago when he'd started to regain consciousness. He wasn't angry or even slightly pissed off that they'd left him behind, he'd worked missions before and he'd always known the risks. It wasn't safe for the chopper to come back down to fetch him, besides, they couldn't risk the safety of the hostage and the rest of the crew.

Dino propped himself up on his elbows and tried to open his eyes, Jeez, it felt like someone had kicked him in the face, when he came to think about it someone probably had kicked him in the face. The kidnappers were hardly going to treat him with kindness and compassion after he'd helped their hostage escape and lost them a pretty hefty payout. Finally managing to pull one eye open, he gave up on the other eye for the moment deciding that it was just too painful, he saw that a muddy light came through a small hole in the middle of the door and Dino could hear faint voices on the other side. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and then, after an inordinate amount of effort managed to get onto all fours. He crawled over what was presumably a compressed dirt floor, either that or someone _really_ needed to vacuum the carpet. Reaching the door he raised himself up, using the wall to push against so he could straighten his back and had to work hard not to let out a loud groan when the wave of pain flooded over him, he self diagnosed; he'd presumably broken at least one rib, but his breathing wasn't laboured so he guessed that he hadn't punctured a lung. Dino put his eye to the hole in the door and wondered why he couldn't see anything, then his brain kicked into gear and he changed eyes, putting his open eye to the hole this time.

To say it was enlightening was an understatement, there, in the middle of the room, laughing and joking with his captors was Arturo Fernandez; their local intel. guy. That bastard, Dino thought, he'd never trusted the snake, but he hadn't believed he'd go to the lengths of selling them out to the enemy. As he watched, one of the kidnappers slapped an envelope into Arturo's outstretched hand. He watched him open it and rifle through the stack of banknotes contained within, a wide grin appearing on his face. Arturo turned and clapped the one who had handed him the cash on the back.

"Adios amigos."

The slippery snake was calling them amigos; friends. Silently Dino cursed him. Of all the dirty, rotten…his blood was boiling, his pulse pounding in his ears. He could feel the bile rising in his throat from the concentrated anger…nope not from his anger…real bile…oh shit…

Dino spun away from the door, dropping back down onto all fours, his head shoved into one corner of the room as the vomit erupted from his throat in surges. Whether it was a reaction to the pain his body was experiencing, or whether he'd picked up some sort of tropical disease while he'd been down in this bastard of a city he didn't know, whatever the reason, it was making his stomach spasm violently and reacquainting him with food he thought he'd seen the last of.

"Oh, God…" he managed to groan before the next wave of nausea hit him and a fresh surge travelled up his throat.

When he eventually gained some semblance of control over his digestive tract and sat back he became aware that the voices from the other side of the door had stopped.

"Nuestro amigo es despierto." The single statement floated through the door, 'our friend is awake'.

"Shit." He'd made such an effort to stay quiet, but the sounds of his retching must have been so loud as to make them aware of his renewed consciousness. After a few minutes there was a sharp click as a key turned in the lock and the door started to open inwards a little. It opened a little more and a shaft of light fell into the room, illuminating an ever expanding strip of floor, before eventually the light fell on him.

"Look at me."

"Chupame la pija." Dino kept his head down as he threw the retort back at his captor, refusing to comply with the demand.

The newcomer stepped forward and landed a sharp blow to Dino's jaw making him recoil, a punishment for his offensive reply. Dino spat the blood that had appeared in his mouth in a gob on the floor and eventually he brought his head back to face the door and whoever stood in front of him gave a snort of amusement when they caught sight of his battered form.

"Not so smart now are you? Eh?"

Dino shielded his eyes from the light, having become accustomed to his pitch black surroundings.

"What information did Fernandez give you?" He was surprised that his voice was still strong, although it hurt his throat to form the words following his projectile vomiting display.

"Arturo? Ah, you no doubt heard his voice a few minutes ago. He came to us at the factory, said he had information we would find interesting…for a price. He told us you had taken our hostage and where your landing zone was, where you were scheduled to be picked up. It meant that we did not have to waste time following you around the city, we could simply wait for you at the landing zone. Arturo is a stupid and greedy man, a man like that is useful to me. And he has been well paid for his treachery." There was an evil smile on his face that showed yellow teeth.

"What do you want with me?"

"Ha, what do we want with any man?…money. I think we will set a ransom for you Señor, a high ransom, and then when your firm pay for your return we will deliver your dead body to them instead. A warning, perhaps, that we are not a silly childish group that will not carry out our threats."

The speaker took a few steps into the cell again, right up to Dino's side, pausing before grasping his short red hair by the roots and pulling Dino up, using just the hair as leverage. There was a blinding flash of light that felt like it had scarred his retinas and then a whirring sound.

Dino dared to open his eyes again for a brief moment and saw another of the kidnappers holding a Polaroid camera, waving a photograph through the air to develop it.

"Perfect. Isn't this what all you K&R people want?" He asked, wafting the photograph at him. "What do you call it? A proof of life? Well we will give your company their proof of life, and when they've paid your ransom we will give them proof of death too." He descended into a bass laugh that contained little humour, but a great deal of maliciousness.

He was still being held up by his hair. Dino chose his moment and swivelled as much as he could, snorting up a gob of phlegm, launching it into his captor's face, who immediately let go of his hair and allowed him to drop to the floor.

"¡Mierda! ¡Hijo de puta!"

Dino smiled as he curled up into a foetal position, his arms covering his head, ready to suffer the barrage of kicks and punches that would undoubtedly follow his impudence. It was worth it just for that one moment, and as the first strike of a fist hit the soft, already tender flesh of his side he knew that that image of rebellion was what he would have to cling to over the next few days.

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9 You're On Your Own

**Chapter 9 – You're On Your Own.**

"…Terry, I know you're upset right now, but you both understood the risks when you accepted the mission…"

"Knew the risks? KNEW THE RISKS? Don't throw that bullshit back at me Havery. Dino's a damn fine K&R specialist. He's made you a rich man and now when he needs some help you're going to turn your back on him?" Terry began to pace backwards and forwards as far as the thick cord on the phone would allow him to, which, in reality was only a couple of paces in either direction. This limited range of movement caused him to shuffle a bizarre path around the telephone and eventually he gave up and threw himself down into the chair which gave a loud creak as it threatened to give way under his weight. Luckily the chair was made of sterner stuff and remained intact, the legs merely bowing a little under Terry's weight.

"Terry." The tone was firm and in many ways finite. "I want Dino out of there as much as everyone else, but I cannot do anything. My hands are tied on this."

"Fine. Enjoy your afternoon tea, _Sir_. I have a man's life to save." He slammed the phone down in its cradle and hoped that the resulting bang had echoed down the phone line all the way to the office in London, with any luck the force of the disconnection would send Havery temporarily deaf. It'd serve the bastard right.

The thing was, Havery had a point; this was a solo mission, he'd told them from the start that the firm couldn't bail them out and when he'd picked up the phone and dialled the international number that would connect him with their boss Terry hadn't really expected to get any help from Luthan Risk, but he'd had to try. Besides, yelling at someone made him feel a little better, made him feel that he wasn't completely impotent in this situation. Terry picked up the phone and slammed it back down into the cradle a couple more times for good measure just in case his first attempt hadn't managed to fully sever the call to his boss and Havery was still on the other end.

Following the rescue attempt that had left Dino unconscious and at the mercy of Niños del Diablo Terry had returned to their previous headquarters in the city. They'd already packed up their equipment and had it sent back before they'd attempted their first rescue, leaving only the bare essentials behind in the building, just in case their attempt didn't work and they had needed to return to base to regroup and come up with another plan. At that point neither of the men could have imagined the dire situation that had unfolded before them. Now Terry wished they'd been a little less sure of themselves, a little more pessimistic and had left more equipment behind. This rescue mission was going to be tough enough without having to try and plan it with virtually no equipment at all.

The phone rang, causing Terry to jump sharply.

"Yeah, Thorne."

"Terrrryyy." The voice was smooth and had a slight slurring quality as if the owner had drunk too much liquor even though it was still early in the morning.

"Wyatt, is that you?"

"Better believe it."

"Good to hear your voice mate, I mean really good." Terry leant forward and massaged his forehead with his left hand whilst keeping the phone clamped to his ear with his right.

"Well I hear an ugly rumour you were having a few problems down there so I thought, well…why not give the bloke a call, see if I can help…"

There was a movement in the doorway of the office and Terry reached into the desk draw, quietly withdrawing his gun, but instead of a thief, renegade or beggar; a plump, slightly balding man in a white linen suit came into view, a man currently holding a cell phone to his ear.

"Wyatt, you sneaky bastard, it's even better to see you than it is to hear your voice." Terry stood up, replacing the now irrelevant phone in its cradle as he did so and walked over to his friend, wrapping him in a quick and manly hug.

Wyatt could feel the tension flowing from Terry like a beacon radiated light.

"What's the situation Terry?"

The younger man's shoulders slumped and he sat back down in the chair with a thud.

"I don't know Wyatt, that's the problem, we've heard nothing. Two days and nothing, no communication, no ransom demand, nothing. We went back to the landing zone but there was no body so I'm at least inclined to believe he's alive…" He left the sentence hanging on an unfinished note, not wanting to hear himself speak the words that had jumped to his throat, 'at least for now'.

"I think you're right. I've never seen a group waste the effort removing a dead body. Besides, it'd take more than a little fall from a helicopter to kill Dino, he's like a cockroach, sometimes I think he'd even survive a full-on nuclear explosion."

Terry couldn't help but laugh at this analogy.

"It's good to hear you laugh."

"Believe me, I haven't been doing a lot of it lately."

"I don't think many people have. News of the situation out here has reached the K&R scene back in London, Dino's a popular guy, everyone's behind you on this one Terry."

"Not everyone." Terry looked down at the phone, thinking of his recent conversation with Ian Havery.

Wyatt seemed to understand the meaning of his words but moved on.

"That's as maybe…" He let the sentence trail off as he saw Terry's attention waning. "But enough of this talk, I come bearing gifts." Wyatt gave a sharp whistle and footsteps could be heard echoing on the wooden stairs outside the room. Wyatt moved out of the way to allow these newcomers to enter the room. Like the Three Wise Men bringing gifts in the Nativity, Angel, Bird Dog and Turkey trooped in bringing with them large metal cases.

"You're still in the country?"

"You bet your ass we're still in the country, we won't completely abandon a brother Hell Bird. Besides, Wyatt here's too old to be lugging around these boxes." Turkey elbowed Wyatt gently in the ribs as he spoke the jibe.

"Thanks." Wyatt rolled his eyes and smiled as he spoke. "Seriously Terry where'd you find these guys?"

"Nothing to do with me mate. They're entirely Dino's fault."

"Figures. I'm going to have to have a word with him about the company he keeps when we get him out." And there it was, the one statement, spoken without thinking that lightened the mood of the whole group, banishing their thoughts of failure to the very back of their minds and replacing it with the knowledge that they could and would succeed in their upcoming mission to rescue their friend.

"So what's in the boxes?"

"Weapons and rations. Most of which was purchased out of your new friend Mr Eduard Milogost's own pocket."

They'd airlifted their hostage back out to a hospital in friendly territory. The medical team had gone to work straight away getting him patched up. A couple of days later he'd been airlifted to a larger medical facility in the US apparently on the mend from his ordeal.

Wyatt shot Terry a meaningful glance.

"You know Havery wants Dino out as much as anyone."

"Well he's got a twisted fuckin' way of showing it."

"That's as maybe, but he's in a difficult position." He paused, the older man thinking about the issues that would face Havery back in Britain, issues he knew Terry wouldn't be able to understand given the immediate circumstances. "Remember whose payroll you're on when you get back to London Terry."

"Shit." Terry cursed, his hands coming up to cover his eyes.

"What?"

"I'm going to have to apologise to him when I get back aren't I?"

"That'd probably be a good idea, yes."

To be continued…


	10. Chapter 10 Amidst Darkness Compassion

**Chapter 10 – Amidst Darkness; Compassion.**

In the distance Dino heard a door slam shut and then for the following minutes there were no sounds to be heard outside of his confinement. Just his own ragged breathing could be heard sucking in the oxygen through injured lips, trying to take breaths that were as shallow as possible so that he didn't inflate his lungs too much with any one breath, he'd tried that and found that it hurt like hell. They'd taken a perverse pleasure in beating him pretty much every day since he'd been captured, the attacks falling just short of killing him, but always leaving him in a severe amount of pain that left him slumped in a corner, almost completely unable to move for several hours and frequently passed out. Amazingly though, in those brief moments when he was able to assess his injuries it didn't seem that they'd managed to break many more bones than his original fall from the helicopter had, the injuries had apparently mostly been limited to soft tissue damage, although Dino admitted that these kind of injuries hurt quite enough, thank-you very much. One of the most enthusiastic of his attackers had been a man that Dino had heard called Vito, who seemed to be calling the shots within the gang, presumably occupying the position as one of the group's generals. Dino wished fervently that he could meet Vito in a darkened alleyway on his own turf, armed only with a set of knuckle-dusters, he'd soon teach the bastard what true pain was.

With the lack of noise throughout his makeshift prison Dino was surprised when the door to his cell opened, slowly. From his position in the corner, where he had collapsed following his most recent bout with his captors Dino groaned inwardly. They couldn't be back to inflict more pain already, surely, he hadn't had chance to fully assess the damage that their last attack had caused on his body yet. Instinctively he curled into a tight ball ready to suffer another round of kicks and punches, but none came. After about a minute, when still nothing had happened Dino lifted his head a little, trying to gauge the situation. He could sense someone crouching down just out of sight and then felt a hand placed softly on his shoulder. He tensed, but the hand remained in place, apparently not intent on causing pain, but calming, reassuring.

Dino lifted his head a little more and shifted his body around so that he could see the newcomer. He had to squint in the half-light to get any kind of image, but when his vision settled he was surprised at what he saw. Rather than the bulky, unshaven brutes that were all he had seen of this gang so far, he found himself looking at a figure with soft, olive skin, eyes that were perfectly curved; with deep brown irises and long, black lashes. A woman? Here? The notion was perversely unexpected and for once he was rendered speechless for a few moments. To many people it would have been difficult to identify that this was a woman, her dark hair shoved up under a filthy, khaki coloured cap, dirt smeared across her face and the cut of her clothing was decidedly masculine, but Dino had known many women throughout his life and found this female easily identifiable from her male counterparts. He took pleasure in the simple things, the fine curve of a feminine neck, the soft skin of her cheeks, the delicately arched eyebrow that perfectly framed an eye that simply dripped with intensity and intelligence.

"Who..?" But his phrase was left unasked as she placed a finger over his lips. After days of nothing but violent beatings this soft touch was so different that it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Shh, Señor. Please, if they find I am here they will hurt us both."

Dino nodded to show he had understood. The young woman smiled, before standing and walking the few steps back to the door. He nearly called out, wanting her to stop, to come back, not wanting to be alone now he had found a companion that was not intent on causing him as much pain as was humanly possible without actually killing him. But the comment died in his throat as he saw her crouch just outside the door and retrieve something bulky; a tray, by the look of it. When she returned she knelt down by his side and lifted a cloth from the tray. Dino heard the drip of water and felt her touch a damp cloth to his face. The water felt cool and soothing against his aching skin and he closed his eyes for a second to savour the relief.

"What is your name?" He knew she wanted him to remain silent, but he had to know and so the gentle whisper in which he spoke was a compromise.

"Nika." She replied with a smile.

"My name is Anthony, although my friends call me Dino."

"Then I will call you Dino too, Señor. If you will permit me."

"Si."

The cloth she lifted away from his face was covered in the smears of dried blood and accumulated muck that the water had lifted from his skin. She dipped the cloth back into the bowl of water, wringing it out before continuing to wipe it gently over the rest of his face and neck. As she administered her care and attention she hummed almost silently, it was less than a whisper, only just discernable to the two of them; a shared song, a calming melody. Finally as she laid the cloth back down she lifted a small bottle, tipping a small amount of the clear liquid onto her palm.

"This is a balm, it will clean your wounds and stop any infection, it will sting a little, I'm sorry." She raised her eyes to meet his as she apologised, and he saw the truth sitting there alongside a great deal of empathy for the man she was tending.

She started on his forehead, her thin fingers smearing the liquid over his skin. Where it came in contact with broken flesh Dino could feel the biting ache and he drew a sharp breath.

"I'm sorry." She repeated, continuing to cover his face in the balm. She started to hum again and Dino found that if he concentrated on the melody then he could block out all but the most severe pain and even that became no more than a dull ache.

"That song…"

"It was a lullaby that my mother used to sing to me whenever I hurt myself. She said that it was a prayer to God to take the pain away."

"It works." His words pulled a smile back to her lips.

Nika continued her ministrations over his shoulders and down his arms, she threw him a worried look as her hands found the violent bullet hole in his upper arm and he simply shrugged in response as if to say 'it's all part of the job'. He noticed that she treated the area with a delicate care, washing it well with the water, but careful not to be too rough as to irritate the wound. When she looked up at him he knew what she was going to do and nodded, bracing himself for the pain. Nika lifted the bottle of balm and tipped a small amount into the wound, hoping that the liquid would act as an antiseptic, hopefully curbing any infection that might already have set in. Dino instantly felt the pain spread out through the muscle of his arm as sharp stabs of agony registered in his brain. He closed his eyes, trying to keep the stream of obscenities that he wanted to scream inside, compressing everything into a quiet grunt accompanied by a series of shallow breaths. As he started to acclimatize to the pain, feeling it fade to a more manageable level in his mind he became aware that the woman in front of him was gripping his hand; willing him through the agony, although when she noticed that he had become aware of the contact she removed her hand and dropped her eyes from his gaze and even in the dull light he was sure her face had flushed red.

Pushing aside what was left of his shirt she progressed to cleansing the skin of his back and chest, first with the damp cloth and then following it with a dose of balm. When she was finally satisfied with her work she reached around to the tray once again and picked up another short, squat vessel, turning back she lifted it to Dino's lips. He felt the cool, fresh water touch the cracked skin of his lips and opened his mouth a little to allow the life-giving liquid inside, where it washed over his tongue and down his throat. Dino couldn't remember how long it had been since he had taken a proper drink, at night when temperatures had plummeted he had found a spot on what appeared to be the outer wall of the building where condensation gathered and licked the bare stone, trying to extract as much water as he could, knowing that he could survive for an extended period without food but without water he would perish in just days. Now though, with the fresh water trickling down his throat he was beginning to feel almost human again.

She lowered the cup, placing it gently on the floor.

"One more thing." She produced a chunk of bread. "I'm sorry it is not much, it was all I could get."

Dino's stomach grumbled at the sight of the food. It would be the first sustenance he would have ingested since his capture several days ago. Nika laughed at his stomach's response to the nourishment and watched intently as he bit ravenously through the crust into the softer bread below.

"Why?...How?..." Dino's mind was a blur of questions which he managed to partially vocalise in between mouthfuls of food.

"Shh, I will tell you what you want to know while you eat." She gently pulled the morsel of bread away, and once again proffered him the cup to drink. "You'll choke if you eat that fast." He took as gulp of water at her insistence and then fell back on to bread with renewed vigour.

Satisfied that he wasn't going to choke himself Nika launched into an initially one-sided dialogue.

"Most of them have gone to a nearby city," she said, nodding her head towards the door and Dino assumed she was talking to the gang that was holding him captive, "they go to deal the drugs they produce on their farms in the mountains and to trade for weapons and liquor, they have only left a few men behind to guard the building, but they are asleep outside. The rest will be gone for a few hours, but I warn you Señor, they will come back drunk." Dino knew exactly what she meant, she was warning him to expect a particularly vicious beating when they returned later.

"Why are you with this gang Nika? You don't belong here. You are better than these animals." She dropped her eyes down so that she was looking at the floor. Dino reached out his hand and placed a finger underneath her chin, lifting her face to look at him. The emotion that he read in her face was one of distinct shame.

"My family is poor Señor, my father died many years ago and my mother was left to look after me and my sister. She worked hard to put food on the table and went hungry so the two of us could eat. I saw what she was doing and I couldn't let her starve herself to death. The gangs…they…they always had money so I sought them out. I cook, I clean and I pack their drugs and if they tell me to I fight alongside them. I send the money they give me to my family, my mother died six months ago from pneumonia, but at least she didn't starve, I can rest knowing her last years were at least a little more comfortable than they could have been. Now I stay to send money to my sister, Elena, she is clever; still in school. One day I want her to go far from this place and have a better life, a chance of happiness. Mine is not a good life, but if it saves my sister then it is worth it."

Dino nodded, understanding her sentiments and acknowledging her bravery. He lifted his hand to stroke the skin of her cheek and for the first time he felt her recoil from his touch and when he looked at her properly he saw the fear etched into her face. Was it him? Why should she be afraid of him? Then, as his mind rapidly processed the possibilities he came across the answer; perhaps it was not just him, was she afraid of the contact from _all_ men?

"Nika, do these men, do they…" he didn't know how she would react to him voicing her torture out loud, "…do they hurt you?" Even without an answer he knew he was right. He pushed his suspicions further. "Do they…rape you?"

Again, she didn't have to answer for him to know that his notions were right, her face said it all. A flame of anger sparked and roared inside his chest. No matter what these men chose to do to him it was irrelevant, but to break the spirit of such an innately kind and gentle creature was beyond the most vile and heinous acts he could imagine. A tear rolled from the corner of her eye and she swiftly wiped it away with the back of her hand, making an attempt to regain her composure, when she lifted her head this time there was a look of steely defiance that had entered her expression.

"It is not a good life, but it is worth it." She reiterated, as if trying to persuade herself as much as Dino. "I have spent my time in Hell, and I will receive my reward in Heaven."

"If I have anything to do with it you won't have to wait that long." Dino growled almost inaudibly. Right then, in that moment, he made himself a promise that if he ever got out of here, he would take her with him and if he didn't make it then he would somehow manage to get a message to Terry that he must take on the same responsibility and help her.

"But why risk your life to help me?" It was a question that had been nagging at him since she had first placed that calming hand on his shoulder.

"You were caught rescuing that other man. You risked your life to save his, that is true courage, true bravery. God tells me that I must help you. I am only sorry that I cannot do more for you. If they knew I had done even this, they would kill me."

"Help me escape."

"No Señor, I cannot do that. They will know I helped you, they will kill me and then as punishment for my betrayal they will hunt down my sister and kill her too. I will not take that risk, I am not as brave as you. I am sorry."

He understood. No good had ever been brought into her life by a man, there was no reason for her to trust him now. This woman had seen no love or compassion in her life, only brutality, hatred and rape. The men surrounding her had shown her no respect, no reverence for her gentle soul, only an animalistic desire for her body.

"You have helped me more than you could possibly imagine Nika. I promise that somehow I will repay you, I will help you I swear."

She opened her mouth to say something further, but was stopped by someone shouting her name from outside.

"I have to go, the guards have woken up and will be wanting food and beer. I have to go." She stood quickly from her kneeling position. Dino caught her hand with his as she stood and lifted it to his lips, placing a light kiss on her olive skin.

"Thank-you."

She was halted by the gentle gesture and stood staring at his with wide-eyes for a few seconds, until another shout from outside made her jump. She grabbed the tray and hurried out of the room, but as she passed through the door she looked back over her shoulder, a small smile gracing her face before pulling the door shut and locking it again, leaving Dino once more immersed in darkness. But now no longer without hope as he had grasped at the compassion that she had bought with her and found it morphing into determination and courage in his soul.

To be continued…


	11. Chapter 11 Best Laid Plans

**Chapter 11 – Best Laid Plans.**

The room was virtually unrecognisable as being the same space from twenty-four hours ago; maps scattered every surface, piles of equipment, rations and other general detritus littered the space. If you hadn't been privy to the conversations that had gone on over the past couple of days and seen the group of military men in action you'd be tempted to thing that there was no plan at all; that pandemonium had broken out and that this wasn't the base for a complex operation as much as a slum.

"I'm getting too old for this shit." Wyatt panted as he put down a heavy metal crate and wiped the film of sweat off his forehead and neck with a handkerchief that he'd plucked from his pocket.

"Well you could always go make the coffee old man." Turkey laughed as he carried a similar crate with an apparently minimal amount of effort, the bulging muscles of his upper arms the only part of him that showed some indication of his heavy cargo.

"Fuck off." Wyatt retaliated with a smile.

Terry's ear was bright red; it was an uncomfortable side-effect of having the phone clamped to the side of his head for what seemed like the past week. He had managed to get hold of Dino's contacts book, a little black notebook that detailed the people he used to gather intel from wherever he was sent on a mission, and was trying to get some information on their present situation so they could come up with a plan of attack. So far he'd had no luck, everyone he'd managed to contact had said they knew nothing of their predicament; a line which Terry knew perfectly well was an outright lie. But he didn't put too much pressure of them to spill what they knew, he still had a list of contacts to try, if he had no luck with any of them then he'd just go back to the beginning and _make_ them tell him, even if it meant finding them and putting a gun to their heads, which, he thought with a smile would probably have been Dino's favourite method of extracting information.

Luckily for Terry, who up until this point had no idea who the informants were that Dino had been using in Tiñuega, the book wasn't organised alphabetically, which would have been useless to the Australian. Instead, it was organised first by continent and broken into sub-sections for each country within that continent and finally down to the city level, which had made it a lot easier to find the men that Dino had been talking to down here.

Terry muttered something unintelligible.

"What's that Terry?"

"I just said never knew Dino could actually be this organised with his contacts." Terry replied with a touch of amazement in his voice."

"Well the information these guys give him can mean the difference between life and death." Wyatt paused as he realised what he'd just said. "I guess he wants to know exactly how to find them if something goes wrong, probably so he can shoot them in the leg." Wyatt grinned.

"Sounds about right. His handwriting's appalling though, it's like a spider walked across the page with ink on its feet. I must've dialled the wrong number about ten times because I can't make out the damn numbers."

"Well, I think Dino might say that as long as he can read it, it doesn't really matter what his handwriting's like." Wyatt chuckled. "Y'know how possessive he gets over his contacts, he'll probably kick your ass for going through his book even though it'll save his life."

Terry chuckled and turned his attention back to the phone and dialled another number, waiting for a second or two before the call was answered.

"Señor Rufino?"

A smile appeared on his face and he gave Wyatt a thumbs-up, clearly indicating that this time he'd managed to decipher Dino's writing correctly and call the right number.

A few minutes later when Terry replaced the phone into its cradle he punched the air, a triumphant grin on his face.

"Remind me to send that guy a box of cigars when we get back home."

The four men in the room all looked up from what they were doing when they heard Terry's jubilant tone.

"What'd he give you?"

Terry stood, ignoring the shooting pain that appeared in his thigh muscles after being sat in the chair for too long and walked over to a pile of maps on a nearby table. He picked up the uppermost plans and tossed them aside, running his hand over one particular map in order to straighten out some of the creases before bending over it. His frantic search through the pile of paper had bought Turkey, Angel, Bird Dog and Wyatt to his side all of whom were now exchanging curious and excited looks.

"I just got the confirmation I needed. Dino's alive and being kept _here_." He prodded the map firmly with a finger.

"Rufino give you a positive ID?"

"Yep. He's with the local police. He was picking up his monthly payment from the gang when he saw Dino being bought in."

"Jeez he's sharing that information around a bit freely. The cop's takin pay-offs from the criminals and he doesn't care who knows? You sure he isn't just makin' this up, tellin' you what you want to hear hoping he'll get a good pay-day out of it?"

"He also said he was still around when Dino woke up and spat in the gang leader's face." Terry added with a smile.

"Well that certainly sounds like Dino. Crazy son of a bitch. No-one else'd be stupid enough to antagonize the bastards that're holding your life in their hands." The three Hell Birds shot looks of relief between themselves.

"Besides, if Rufino's lying to us he knows I'm going to hunt him down and shoot him, and it won't be in the leg; it'll be higher and will put a serious road-block in his path to having kids."

Terry looked back down at the map.

"It's a different place than where they were holding Milogost."

"Well, seeing as you guys shot that place up and highlighted some of their defensive problems they'd have been stupid to carry on using that place as headquarters."

"Plus they know we're here and I'd guess they have a strong suspicion that we're going to try and get him back. They're mean bastards, but they're not stupid. They'll be putting a lot more obstacles in our way if we want to go in and get him." Turkey pointed out.

"Yeah, and most of those obstacles are probably going to be big fuckers with guns." There was a grin on Angel's face as he spoke that reminded Terry strongly of Dino. It was something about the almost impossibility of the situation that seemed to appeal to these guys, as if the more danger involved somehow increased the enjoyment factor.

"Nutters." He muttered under his breath with a grin.

----------------------------------

Over the next few hours they'd argued and propounded varying theories about how they were going to do this, with Terry and Angel nearly coming to blows on a couple of occasions and having to be held apart by the rest of the group. Finally diplomacy had reigned, compromises had been made and a plan had been settled on.

"Ok, so Bird Dog and Angel, you're with me; we'll go in hard and loud. We're going in through the front doors, no pissing around this time, we haven't got time to scout the location before we go, from what Rufino says, Dino's pissing them off and he's treading on thin ice. Main objective is to get the subject…Dino…out..."

"And shoot as many of the other bastards as possible." Bird Dog interrupted with a grin.

"Erm, sure." Terry just agreed, fighting the desire to shake his head. "Turkey you'll be waiting close by so we can make a quick getaway and Wyatt you think you can arrange pickup from a nearby airfield at such short notice? I'm not going to risk a chopper again, not now we know they've got RPGs in their arsenal, it's too risky.

"Already got a plane on standby Terry." Wyatt grinned.

"Good. When we hit hour zero and start the mission I want you out at the airfield, make sure that plane's prepped and ready to get us into the big blue as soon as we get there. I get the feeling we're not going to be welcome in Tiñuega much longer."

All the men nodded in agreement of their allotted roles in this operation. Turkey, Angel and bird dog all stretched out their right hands, placing them on top of each other and looked at Terry and Wyatt expectantly, waiting for them to follow their lead. Both men took the hint and added their outstretched hands to the pile.

"Hell Birds that fly together, die together." It was Angel that spoke. His speech was slow and steady, taking the time to emphasize each word, looking around the group, meeting each man's eyes as he vocalised the brief line, making sure they all knew the importance of the Hell Birds' oath.

"Amen to that." Both Turkey and Bird Dog chimed in; a sentiment echoed just a millisecond later by Terry and Wyatt.

"Good. Then tomorrow we go in."

To be continued…


	12. Chapter 12 Breaking Point

**A/N – Ok, so I know that Vito would technically be slurring drunkenly in Spanish rather than English – but I'm using my writer's prerogative here. Besides, I can't write Spanish when the character's sober so I'm damn sure I wouldn't know how they'd speak when drunk!!**

**Chapter 12 – Breaking Point.**

"_Break his spirit and then break his neck."_

Even with the constant ringing in his ears that his last kicking had left him with, Dino heard the growled command and a strange thing happened, it was as if a calmness settled over him. So this is how he was going to die. Even stranger, the voice that echoed the words 'so this is how it ends' around and around inside his head was clearly identifiable as the slow drawl of John Wayne. Dino had never envisioned his inner voice to sound like John Wayne, he'd expected perhaps a Bruce Willis in Die Hard mode, Sean Connery's James Bond or even Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones at a push, but not particularly John Wayne. But hey, he wasn't about to grumble, the Duke wasn't an inner voice to be ashamed of; he was a tough bastard. Dino intentionally stopped his train of thought right there, he was not making sense, even to himself, perhaps the solitary confinement and the frequent violence was finally starting to get to him. He wondered idly what the Duke would do in his situation. _Right_, that was enough, he was starting to plan his actions based on his inner voice, an inner voice that he hadn't known he'd had until a couple of minutes ago. He had to get out of here before he went completely crazy.

He cleared his mind. There were a few things that Dino was certain of in his life and one of them was this; they could break every damn bone in his body, but they would never, _never_ break his spirit. He'd go down fighting, and spit in their faces with his dying breath if he had to.

"Bring it on, assholes." He whispered to the empty space around him.

The door to his makeshift cell creaked open a little way and Dino braced his body and his mind for the worst that they could throw at him…

The door set into the wall opposite to where Dino was lying opened a little more, not much, certainly not enough for a person to get through and to his surprise he saw Nika's face appear in the thin aperture. The woman's countenance was set into a serious expression, the smile that had graced her features the last time he had seen her was noticeably absent now. She nodded almost imperceptibly before sending something skittering across the hard floor, coming to rest next to his foot, but before he could see exactly what this gift was she closed the door again, cutting off the source of light. In the darkness Dino reached down and retrieved the object from next to his boot and instantly, as soon as he touched it, he knew what it was; a gun.

His deep interest in guns and firearms had started at an early age, and the wealth of weapons related knowledge that he had stored in his brain, even as a young boy, was phenomenal. Most of his family and friends had expected him to become some sort of sociopath, a gun-toting lunatic, and in a way Dino realised that he hadn't disappointed their expectations. It was just that he had been trained to hone and control his particular psychological quirk. He was a sociopath that took orders, well, most of the time anyway. Now, as he ran his hands over the cold, hard metal, gauging the size and weight of the weapon, his fingers finding the little embellishments that gave away the make and model he crossed particular weapons off his mental list until he narrowed it down to just a few possibilities and then to just one. Dino identified the weapon as a Sig P226 and then as his fingers found their way to the back of the grip a small smile crept onto his face as he found one particular groove in the metal frame, this wasn't just any Sig P226 it was a P226 'Navy' model. More accurately, it was _his_ P226 'Navy'; the same weapon that had been taken from his unconscious body along with the automatic weapon when the rebel gang had captured him after his fall from the helicopter. Dino knew this weapon inside out and could rattle the specifications off without thinking about it; .9mm calibre, height 5.5 inches, length 7.7 inches, weight 34 ounces, fitted with a 15 round magazine, the only statistic he couldn't call accurately to mind was the number of times that this gun had saved his life; he'd lost count of that a long time ago, but it had to be well into the hundreds by now. He swiftly checked the magazine and found it full before snapping it back into place, disengaging the safety and cocking the weapon.

"Bring it on." He reiterated, this time with a great deal more determination than before.

When the door finally opened again, Dino was ready. Since Nika had handed him his ticket out of this shit-hole he'd been gradually working at regaining some movement in his limbs, standing up and working the pain out of his tired and battered muscles, moving his arms so that he felt the joints crack; if he was honest he was sure that his joints had cracked in several places where they weren't meant to, but he'd have to get that sorted out when he was out of here and could actually access some sort of medical care. At this moment a comprehensive knowledge of exactly what bones were broken wasn't going to help him get out of here, in fact he'd rather not know and then deal with it later.

Right now, the pain that had coursed through his body just an hour earlier was barely noticeable, adrenaline tended to do that to you, it psyched you up and made you feel virtually invincible and anaesthetized any pain. Now he was mobile and ready to fight his way out.

The guy that staggered into the room was obviously drunk; his gait was uneven and meandering and he stank of booze. Dino recognised him instantly, this guy was one of his regular torturers, had been present at virtually every beating he'd received; Vito. A look of satisfaction appeared on Dino's face, satisfaction that this evil bastard was going to be the first one he'd kill. It took the man a couple of seconds to focus on Dino, initially confused by the fact that the captive wasn't curled up in the corner where he usually was, but was standing. In his inebriated state he had clearly mistaken the expression on Dino's face for fear of some kind.

"So, th' big 'merican man s'wake. Not so tough without your guns, heh 'merican man?" He slurred his speech and it took Dino a few second to work out what the hell he was actually saying.

"Who says I don't have a gun?" Dino raised his arm, bringing the gun to the drunkard's head and fired a shot straight through his skull without hesitation. "_Asshole_."

Dino knew he had to work quickly, the shot would have attracted the attention of anyone in or near the building. His first job was to rifle through the dead man's pockets to see if he was carrying anything that might approximate another weapon to back up his own in case he ran out of ammunition. He struck gold in the guy's back pocket, a handgun, which from the weight of it Dino guessed had a full magazine. He cocked the weapon and stuck it in the back of his own pants.

He slid around the doorframe, keeping his back firmly in contact with the roughly plastered walls. He had to pause for a couple of minutes and allow his eyes to acclimatize to the bright sunlight which was so different from the darkened surroundings he'd become used to. Then a movement a few metres away brought his attention back to the present and he raised his gun again, ready to fire, but stopped himself just in time when he recognised Nika. She was clearly startled at finding Dino pointing a gun directly at her, but relaxed when he dropped the weapon so that it was pointing at the floor.

"Dino!" She lifted a hand to point behind him and he turned and fired simultaneously, seeing the fear in her eyes and knowing instantly what was wrong. The rebel that had been creeping up behind him dropped to the ground in a heap, instantly dead. Dino's first reaction was to go to Nika, he took her gently by the arm and guided her through a door that turned out to lead into a small broom-closet. He reached around and pulled out the gun he had taken off the body of his first victim, flipping it over, holding it by the barrel and offering it to her grip first. She took it and pulled the slide back, noting with a nod that there was a bullet already loaded in the chamber and that the gun was ready to be fired. Dino watched her, mesmerised by her comfort with the weapon, impressed with her ease of use.

"Safety's off. If anyone opens the door, shoot them…No, let me revise that; if _anyone other than me_ opens the door, shoot them."

She nodded and he quickly bent his head down to lay a small kiss on the hand that wasn't holding the gun.

"Thank-you for helping me."

"No, thank-you."

"Why are you thanking me? I haven't done anything for you," 'yet' he added mentally.

"You've done more than you know."

"Like what?" He was confused, wondering if he'd forgotten about some big, heroic gesture that he had performed.

"You've shown me that not all men are the same." She reached up and tentatively laid a small kiss on his cheek and laughed when she saw Dino's face flush red.

"Stay here, I'll find you when it's over."

She nodded and he shut the door, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Dino walked quickly to the body of the fallen man and picked up the Kalashnikov that was looped around his neck, swinging it around his own shoulders instead.

A rat-tat of gunfire from the semi-automatic weapon in Dino's hands brought the next two rebels down, one falling on top of the other. He had only had chance to check one of them for weapons when another man came around the corner, AK47 in hand. Dino just had time to pick the body of the top man up and use him as a human shield, praying that the shooter was far enough away so that the bullets would lose a little of their momentum before they ploughed into his fleshy barrier, if they hadn't then they would surely explode straight through the human shield and hit Dino as a secondary target. The fact that he felt no pain meant that thankfully the bullets had been halted by the corpse he was holding in his hands. Dino hooked his arms under the corpse's armpits and grabbed the rifle that he hadn't yet managed to disentangle from his victim, using it to shoot a barrage of fire in the direction of the rebel. The bullets hit their mark and Dino heard the wet explosions as the projectiles ploughed into his opponent's living flesh. Poking his head around the human shield he saw yet another body crumpled on the floor. As he let the man in his arms drop to the floor, Dino pulled a knife that he had extracted from one of his previous failed attackers and cut the fabric strap that held the rifle in place, allowing it to slip off as he fell lifelessly to the ground. As such, in this position Dino simply wasn't ready when yet another hulking rebel stepped around the corner brandishing a handgun.

-**BANG**-

The shot echoed down the corridor that was now littered with dead bodies. Dino was surprised to find it didn't hurt. When he'd been shot in the past it had hurt like hell, perhaps he'd finally endured so much pain that any more simply didn't register on the receptors in his brain. It wasn't until the guy in front of him, the one with the gun, fell down with blood pouring out of a bullet hole in his neck that Dino decided something was not quite right with this scene, he checked his body quickly and found no gun shot wound. He hadn't been shot. Then where the hell had that bang come from? He turned to look over his shoulder and found Nika standing with the door to the cupboard pushed open, one foot inside the tiny space and one foot outside, her face flushed with what looked like anger. The gun that Dino had given her was raised level; a curl of smoke issued from the barrel suggesting it had only just been fired.

"How…? What…?" Dino looked between her and the body of the man lying in front of him, the man who he had thought was going to be his killer._ She'd shot a guy and saved his life and all he could manage was 'How…? What…?' _sometimes Dino got incredibly frustrated with his vocabulary when it seemed to go AWOL on him.

"They're brothers." Nika pointed between the man who Dino had used as a human shield and the one she had just shot. "There's a hole in the cupboard door, I was watching. When I saw this one, I knew his brother wouldn't be far behind." She walked a few steps forward, passing Dino and towering over the body of the most recently killed rebel and lifted her gun once again, putting a bullet straight through the back of the already dead man's skull, spitting on his lifeless frame and muttering a choice selection of curses in Spanish before repeating the action for his brother.

"Nika, I think they're already dead." He ran the situation through his mind and suddenly understood the source of her aggression. "Did they…?" He was going to say 'rape you' but thought that she would understand his question without him actually having to speak the words out loud, he was right.

"Si." She nodded, but refused to lift her head to meet his gaze. "I've wanted to do that for a long time."

Dino gave her a few seconds for the reality of the situation to sink in before hustling her back into her hiding place again and continuing on his path ready to bring down as many of the enemy as it took for him to get out of here.

To be continued…


	13. Chapter 13 Hell Birds Together

**Chapter 13 – Hell Birds Together…**

Terry, Bird Dog and Angel were a block away when they heard the first shots coming from inside the ramshackle building they were heading towards. They rang out in the silence of the streets, echoing from the surrounding buildings.

"What the hell was that?" Terry had frozen mid step as he spoke, not wanting even his quiet footfalls to alter the sounds he was hearing.

There were a few seconds of silence after this first brief barrage of sounds, before some faint shouting in Spanish. The words were muffled by the outer walls of the building, no matter how hard Terry tried to concentrate on catching the syllables he couldn't make out what going on. The shouts were quickly followed by more gunfire, the sharp cracks of ammunition being released unmistakeable regardless of any distortion the surrounding structures might create.

"Something's goin down."

The glances between the men said what they could not and would not force their vocal chords to articulate, each man fearing they were just minutes too late to save their friend. The barrage of shots had sounded so much like a firing squad that it sent a shiver down each spine. Each man had secretly clung to the hope that they would find Dino alive, but that hope was fast eroding with their recent observations.

The trio ran forward, trying to stay to the sides of the streets as much as possible, where they presented any possible attackers with the smallest targets, but now their need to remain unnoticed was tempered by their desire to reach their destination as quickly as possible. Just a few metres away from the main entrance to their target they slowed from the steady jog they had broken into upon hearing the first shots, creeping forward now, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. A quick burst of speed sent Terry away from the other two, spreading them out and giving them a tactical advantage over their opponents as they would hopefully manage to cover any emerging rebels from multiple positions. Terry hoped fervently that the men inside the building were all occupied with the constant commotion that was now audible rather than watching out for any external attack. At least he'd soon find out if he was right, if they weren't occupied then he could be pretty certain he'd just made himself an open target.

There was a series of thuds that could be translated as bullets biting into wood, Angel raised a fist and bought Bird Dog to a swift halt behind him as he saw the wood around the lock on the door shudder and shatter. He moved his fist down, pointing towards the splintering wood, bringing the team's attention towards what he had just seen. Nods from Terry and Bird Dog showed him that they'd already seen what was going on.

All three military personnel stepped back, steadying their backs against walls as they saw the door start to open at first with a desperate yank from inside and then at a smoother pace.

Terry, Angel and Bird Dog all reached for holsters and withdrew weapons, pulling slides back and cocking the firearms, prepared to fire as necessary.

The door opened more, and suddenly Terry thought he was seeing things. Perhaps the fact that he hadn't slept for over forty-eight hours had finally gotten to him. He tried to rationalise; it shouldn't have this sort of effect, he'd stayed awake and alert for far longer on past missions, and he'd still got the job done and hadn't encountered hallucinations, not like this. It had to be the fact that he was so close to this case, yes, that had to be it…because there was no way what he was seeing was real. His eyes told him that the figure standing in the doorway was Dino, a battered and bedraggled Dino but still Dino, alive and grinning like a freak. His head said that his eyes were playing tricks on him, that from all his previous experiences of kidnap situations Dino should be dead by now. Terry pinched himself, hard, but the only effect it had was to redden his skin. When he looked back Dino was still standing in the doorway, grinning, grasping an AK47 in his hands, another automatic rifle slung over his shoulders and from what Terry could see, several handguns shoved in the waistband of his trousers.

The red-head stumbled forward and Terry was comforted by the fact that Angel and Bird Dog were evidently sharing his hallucination as they rushed forward and embraced their old team-mate, but all the while, even as the two Hell Birds pulled him into strong hugs, Dino's eyes were fixed firmly on Terry.

Thorne lowered his weapon and stepped forward, repeating his team mates' actions and pulling his friend into a hug. He felt Dino recoil at the pressure exerted on his body, and as Terry stepped back he took a good look at his partner's form, the skin that was visible, face, neck, arms; all was covered in a dappled pattern of bruises, a mottled spider-web of purple lines criss-crossing his flesh.

Terry opened his mouth to speak, but Dino beat him to it.

"You look like shit Terry."

"I hate to break it to you Dino, but you're not going to be winning any beauty contests yourself."

Dino's laugh was perhaps the best sound that Terry had ever heard.

"Thanks, good to see you too." Dino raised his eyebrows. "Y'know, the facilities are seriously lacking in this place. As a holiday resort I'm not giving it a good review, in fact I'm considering asking for my money back."

Angel and Bird Dog had taken a few steps back and were now peering into the building that Dino had just shot his way out of. The interior looked as if a bomb had detonated and this was ground zero, no piece of furniture had escaped unscathed, chairs and tables lay in crumbling piles of rough, untreated wood, bullet holes riddled every visible surface. A body sat propped in the corner of the room, head lolled down onto his broad chest. Even from this distance it was obvious that there was no point in checking for a pulse as blood oozed like thick syrup from a massive head wound. Through a doorway the Hell Birds could see another pair of bodies one lying across the other, where he had fallen across his dead comrade before his own vicious demise.

"What the fuck…?" Bird Dog gasped as he surveyed the scene in front of him, his eyes oscillating back and forth between Dino and the carnage inside.

"Well, I got tired of waiting for you pussies to turn up. Had to keep myself amused somehow didn't I?" He said with an easy smile.

"Jeez there's more of 'em through here." Bird Dog called back from where he'd ventured a little way into the building. "How the hell many did you kill Dino?"

"Enough." He caught Terry's eye. "I'll explain later, when we're on our way out of this God forsaken place. But before we go I've just got a couple of things that I gotta do." With that, Dino limped unevenly back inside.

"Where the hell is he going? He hasn't had enough of this place yet?" Angel threw the question out to the others.

"Perhaps he missed one of the bastards. Y'know he doesn't like to leave a job unfinished."

He emerged a few minutes later with a smaller figure, whose head was covered with a cap shuffling at his side. Dino seemed to be whispering quietly to this stranger providing the scene with a background hiss as his unintelligible words swept around. Dino came to a halt just outside the building and the figure at his side followed suit and stopped; looking up from the ground for the first time. The new angle of the stranger's face revealed soft, feminine features. Upon raising her head the unidentified woman had caught sight of Angel and Bird Dog standing ahead and her body jumped, instantly her hand dove in between the folds of rough material that made up her jacket, pulling out a semi-automatic weapon. Bird Dog and Angel reacted instantly, also pulling their firearms up, levelling them with her head. Dino didn't make a sound but simply side-stepped, placing his own body between the barrels of the three guns. Again he whispered something to the woman in Spanish and as she raised her eyebrows looking for confirmation of some sort. He nodded, providing her with the comfort that she seemed to require.

"Nika." He whispered soothingly. "It's ok."

She seemed to be looking deep into Dino's eyes, as if he were charming a snake, hypnotising her. He lifted a hand and placed it on the barrel of her gun and the world stood still. Everyone took a breath, they'd all seem someone try this move at disarming an opponent before, and they'd all seen it go both ways; either the gun could be wrested from her hand or she'd pull the trigger and pump a bullet through his chest wall. Moments passed and no-one moved until finally in an almost imperceptible movement Nika nodded her head and allowed the weapon to be smoothly removed from her grasp. Dino sent a small smile in her direction as he de-cocked the firearm and ejected the unspent cartridge from the chamber, clicking the safety on and slipping it into the back pocket of his pants to join the hoard of other small weapons he'd taken from the dead bodies as he'd moved through the building.

Terry looked over at Angel and Bird Dog who had dropped the line of their weapons as soon as Dino had stepped in front of them and were now trying to hide the knowing smile that passed between them. Terry was sure that he caught the word '_chica'_ being whispered. If Dino had heard them he had evidently ignored it.

Angel yanked the walkie-talkie from the clip on his belt and turned the knob on top.

"Turkey, you better get your ass over here. We're out."

"What the fuck's going on? I heard shots fired, y'all ok?"

Dino took the radio from Angel's grip and pressed the broadcast button while lifting it to his mouth.

"Mind your language boy, there's a lady present."

"Dino! You're alive, you son of a b…What do you mean lady present? I sit out here worrying my ass off and you pricks go looking for women? Not cool man." As he spoke, the group could hear an engine in the background as he revved the jeep that was to be their getaway vehicle. Dino turned to the other Hell Birds and mouthed the words, _'you let him drive?'_. There was a strange moment, seconds later when they could hear the whine of the engine through the radio and could also hear the vehicle tearing through the streets first-hand. The radio transmitter delayed the sound by a fraction of a second making it sound like a warped kind of echo.

Finally the jeep came into view around a corner, travelling at such speed that it lifted onto two wheels. It was a slightly hair-raising experience just watching the vehicle speeding along. The streets were narrow and potholes were dotted here and there making the terrain uneven. As the wheels of the jeep dropped into potholes the entire carriage would shake and tilt, making the suspension crunch painfully and causing the side of the vehicle to frequently scrape against the shacks that lined the passageway, wood, cardboard and corrugated steel fell in Turkey's path and a growing army of small rodents fled their habitual homes in an effort to escape the progress of the lunatic behind the wheel.

"Jeez, who taught him to drive?" Terry asked.

"Me." Dino sighed with a roll of his eyes.

"Either you're a really bad teacher or he was a dreadful student."

"No, it's just that I was drunk when I was teaching him." Dino chuckled. "Um, I think we should stand back, stopping is not his strong point."

"From what I've seen so far, driving in general is not his strong point."

The screeching brakes sounded like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard and the tyres left a smear of rubber on the street as Turkey hit the brakes a little too hard and the tyres stopped turning instantly pushing the jeep into a wild forward slide. Turkey vaulted out of the drivers seat so quickly that at first Terry wondered if he'd actually taken the time to bring the vehicle to a complete stop and engage the handbrake.

"Dino, you son of a…" The rest of his speech was muffled as he pulled Dino into a strong hug. As he greeted his friend he caught sight of Nika, who had moved behind Dino in an attempt to conceal herself from these unfamiliar men who she didn't know and certainly didn't trust.

"Buenos dias Señorita. ¿Cómo se llama Usted?" Turkey fixed her with a prize-winning grin, one that Terry presumed he reserved for the ladies.

"Nika." Her voice was hushed to a whisper.

Before Turkey could continue Dino pulled him forward so that his lips were almost touching Turkey's ear.

"Keep it in your pants, hotshot." He growled quietly so that only Turkey could hear him.

"Hey, what'd I say? I'm just being friendly. Jeez, Dino, getting kidnapped made you real cranky."

Dino just fixed him with a severe stare that served to emphasize his message.

As Terry watched, he saw Nika shuffle closer to Dino looping a finger through one of the belt loops on the back of his trousers as if she couldn't bear to be parted from him as if he was acting as her comfort blanket. Feeling her contact, Dino turned his head to look at her and smiled; that seemed to be all the reassurance she required. There was a tension between the pair, Terry could virtually feel it buzzing through the air like a static charge, but it didn't seem to be sexual tension, rather she depended on him for strength and protection, trusting him to be her rock. Terry wondered just what had gone on while Dino had been locked away, he felt certain that his friend would tell him eventually when his Hell Bird buddies weren't around, so rather than pushing the issue now, he left it in trust, knowing that at some point in the future Dino would spill and tell him exactly who this young woman was.

"Whatever, man. C'mon then, get in, I got a bottle of twelve year old scotch back at headquarters with your name on it Dino."

"I should think so too, but I got a little errand to run first. You guys mind a quick detour?"

"No problemo, so where are we headed?"

"Back into the city, we need to pick up a young lady by the name of Elena." He saw Nika's startled expression as she registered his words, amazed that he had not only remembered her sister's plight, but her name too. "And then I want to stop by and see an old…_friend_." Dino had a wicked glint in his eyes as he spoke.

To be continued…


	14. Chapter 14 An Old Friend

**Chapter 14 – An Old Friend.**

Arturo Fernandez gave a grunt as he heaved himself out of the comfortable chair and wandered over into the kitchen. As he bent down to the refrigerator a dull click made him straighten up once again and creep back towards the lounge, hand automatically moving towards the gun he kept tucked in the waistband of his trousers. The front door was swinging gently in the light breeze. Funny, he could've sworn he'd locked that door about an hour ago. Shuffling over, he pulled the door open and looked out into the busy street; nothing unusual there. Shrugging his shoulders he pushed the door back into the frame, hearing the catch engage before heading back into the kitchen to resume his search for some alcoholic refreshment.

Arturo pulled open the door of the large white refrigeration unit and heard the steady rumble of the motor as it circulated cool air around inside the box. Keeping the food, or more importantly in Arturo's eyes the beer, nice and chilled. He grabbed a frosted bottle from the wide selection available on the second shelf and turned towards the table that sat in the centre of the cooking area, kicking the refrigerator door shut with his foot as he did so. He positioned the bottle with just the edge of the crimped metal cap resting on the tabletop, where all that was required was a firm thump on the top of the bottle to send the metal lid flying off in an arc, falling onto the tiled floor with a clatter and left yet another deep groove in the wooden tabletop amongst the multitude of other marks, gouges and gashes that suggested a prolonged period of use as a substitute for a bottle-opener. The force also sent a spray of beer foam splattering onto the table, dripping with a steady _splat_ onto the floor. Arturo glanced down at the mess and then walked away, ignoring the fact that a small army of ants was quickly homing in on the sweet liquid and walked back towards his seat taking a deep swig of beer, pausing only briefly in his path to let out a belch.

"Buenos dias Arturo." The greeting was not warm and friendly in the slightest, in fact there was the air of a threat entwined with the innocent words.

Fernandez froze, the bottle lifted to his lips, liquid on the verge of flowing into his mouth. When he eventually did move, the beer that had been teetering on the edge washed into his mouth and straight down his throat, causing him to start choking, gasping for a lungful of air.

"Dino."

"Surprised to see me Arturo? Or should I say surprised to see me alive?" Dino sounded each syllable of the sentence pointedly and lingered on the word _alive_.

Dino was sitting comfortably in the chair that Arturo had vacated only minutes before, legs stretched out and feet, clad in dusty army boots, propped on the low table in front of the chair.

"How did you…?"

"How did I get out? There isn't a prison built that can keep me locked up indefinitely. I guess I'm like a werewolf, only a silver bullet's gonna stop me."

The look on his face was difficult to gauge, there was a smile tugging at his lips but linked with the wicked glint in his eye it was clear that his temperament could swing in either direction. Arturo had a pretty good idea which direction Dino's mood was going to head in and his hand slowly, almost unnoticeably moved towards the waistband of his trousers where his firearm was still stored. Unfortunately for him his movement was only _almost_ unnoticeable and in the blink of an eye, before Arturo had even managed to move his hand a couple of inches, Dino was out of the seat, his apparent relaxation a sham covering the fact that every muscle in his body had been waiting like a coiled spring, ready to react the instant Fernandez tried anything. Instantly Arturo was pushed back until his back came up against the rough plaster wall and found the barrel of Dino's gun pressed into his temple, the palm of his hand wrapped around his throat, forcing Arturo to face forward and look directly into Dino's eyes. There was no mistaking his emotions now, pure and unadulterated hatred and disgust.

"Don't even fucking think about it." Dino growled through his teeth and Arturo lifted his hands slowly out to the side. Dino kept one hand on the grip of his gun, finger firmly on the trigger while his other hand dropped and pulled Arturo's gun out of the waistband of his jeans, checking his pockets and withdrawing a flick knife. Dino's eyebrows raised as he pulled out the knife; tempted to just thrust it deep into Fernandez's chest and twist the blade. Luckily for Arturo, Dino had retained some measure of his self-restraint and instead tossed the knife to one side where the sharp point stuck into the low wooden table emitting a low _twang_ as the blade reverberated backwards and forwards.

"Dino, I…I…"

"What Arturo? You never meant to sell me out? It was all a mistake? Don't try to pull that shit with me you two-faced bastard." Dino's face was so close to his adversary that Arturo could feel the spittle erupting from Dino's lips with every word.

"Dino, I had no choice, they…they said they would kill me if I didn't help them, what was I supposed to do?"

"Then you should have died with honour. Honour above all, Arturo. Although I doubt you'd recognise the honourable thing if it hit you in the face. And I doubt very much that you have ever been put in the position where your life was in danger. I saw you getting paid off and I know that you went to them willingly with the information. How much was my life worth?"

"I…"

"How much?"

Fernandez dropped his head, finally realising that continuing his lie was pointless. Dino had seen the transaction. There was no point trying to fabricate a cover story of blackmail and force when none existed.

"Fifty thousand dollars."

"Pathetic. I'm insulted; I'm worth at least triple."

"I needed the money. You think it's easy running some two-bit kidnap and ransom outfit down here? You work for one of the biggest companies in the world you don't know what it's like lower down the ladder. I want to run a business to rival Luthan Risk but I need the cash to start up. I want to start a legitimate business." Arturo was whining now, his voice oscillating amongst notes in the higher octaves of human speech. Dino started to wonder if he pushed him a little further, made him a little more nervous if his voice would go high enough for only dogs to hear him.

"So you thought you'd cross the line one last time to get hold of the cash you needed to be taken seriously as a player in the K&R market? You'll never go legit Fernandez. You haven't got the skills or the balls. I'd be surprised if you hadn't started spending that blood-money on women and booze already." Arturo's eyes dropped again and his face coloured telling Dino that his guess had been right on the money, so to speak. "Pathetic." He spat again. "You're not even worth a bullet."

Dino finally lowered the gun, noting that as he pulled it away from Arturo's temple it left a reddened indentation in the skin, a clear imprint from the gun muzzle. Putting some force behind the hand that still curled around Fernandez's throat Dino shoved him hard and brought him crashing down onto a flimsy cabinet that splintered and gave way under the man's considerable weight and covered him in shards of cheap wood as he came into contact with the floor. The fact that the initial force had been to his throat left him gasping for breath. When he eventually raised himself from his crumpled position on the floor onto two unsteady legs he found Dino had once again raised his weapon, aiming at the floor around Arturo's feet.

"On second thoughts, bullets are cheap." He extended the arm which held the gun. Three, four, five shots rang out, the sound as they exploded from the barrel of the gun and echoed as they hit the tiled floor was deafening; the projectiles bouncing around, skittering across the hard surface. Dino let out a deep, humourless laugh as he watched Arturo dodge the bullets, leading him to perform a kind of frantic dance before finally crying with pain as one ricocheting projectile bounced and burrowed into the flesh of his calf.

Fernandez howled in pain, writhing on the floor, his hands clasping the back of his leg as blood slowly oozed between his fingers.

Dino nodded, satisfied with the image he was witnessing before turning on his heel and walking towards the door.

"You can't leave me like this." Arturo begged, between the rasping gasps of breath.

Dino turned back, halting his exit, his eyes aflame with concentrated hatred.

"Why not? You left me to the mercy of your _amigos_ with a bullet in my shoulder. You should think yourself lucky I'm not locking you in a stinking cell for a week without any kind of medical help. Here." He picked up the cordless phone that had been sitting in the cradle on a table to one side of the door and tossed it over to Arturo. "Call a taxi to take you to the hospital, I'll even pay." He pushed his fingers into the back pocket of his trousers and pulled out a bundle of cash that he'd liberated from the gang's headquarters when he's gone back in to find Nika. Peeling a couple of notes off the stack he tossed them in the same direction as the phone. He watched as they fluttered down, one landing on Arturo's arm, the other coming to rest in the gradually spreading smear of blood and then turned back to his intended path and walked out of the door, letting it slam back into the frame with a satisfying thwack.

Most of the time turning the other cheek was the best course of action, but sometimes, just sometimes, revenge was too sweet to pass up.

To be continued…


	15. Chapter 15 Aftermath

**Chapter 15 – Aftermath.**

_Three months later._

Dino was sitting at the bar, his shoulders hunched, his mind far away when he heard the voice.

"Hola." The voice came quietly from behind him and Dino felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned around to discover who was talking to him and found two women standing uncertainly, one withdrawing her hand from where she had prodded him. '_Hola'? What the hell was someone doing greeting him in Spanish in the middle of New York City?_ Then he took a closer look at the two women, the one on the right looked only vaguely familiar, but when he caught the other woman's eye he instantly recognised her, the dark irises jolting his brain into recognition. Hers was a face he would never forget. If he was honest it was the face that had drifted into his dreams every night since they'd escaped that hellish place.

"Nika! You look…you look stunning." His mouth fell open, eyes wide in surprise at her transformation. The last time Dino had seen her she'd been dressed in the baggy combat trousers, a shapeless men's shirt and army boots, hair shoved up under a filthy cap as he'd taken her out of the gang headquarters. Now she was dressed in a black dress that fell to her knees, but even the conservative cut of the garment couldn't hide her startling beauty. Her hair was loose and fell in dark waves over her shoulders, framing her olive-skinned face.

She smiled in response, colour rising to her cheeks in embarrassment at his greeting.

"Thank-you." She looked down at the floor for a second, not really sure what to say and then looked up at him again. "This is my sister, Elena. I think you met her briefly in Tiñuega."

"Hola Señor."

"Hello Elena, it's good to meet you."

"You too. Nika talks about you a lot."

"Sshht." Nika glared daggers at her sister and the colour in her cheeks intensified, her sister merely shrugged.

Dino fought the urge to grin at Nika's clear discomfort at this revelation.

"Well, I'm going to…erm…I'll be over there." Elena pointed vaguely in the direction of the other end of the bar, near a group of young men around Elena's age who were eyeing her appreciatively.

"I get the feeling she thinks we need some alone time. She's not exactly subtle is she?" Dino turned and spoke to Nika as he watched Elena wander away, a smile curling his lips up at the corners.

"Hmmm." Nika huffed at Elena's evident lack of discretion and Dino couldn't help but smile wider.

"You know, her English is amazing, you've been here for what? Three months? I swear she's even picking up a bit of the New York accent."

"Yes, I'd noticed that too."

"I think you are as well. Did you get your papers through yet?"

"Yes, this morning." She smiled that smile that made his heart melt. "We are now legally allowed to live and work in this country. Thank-you Dino."

It had been three months since they'd left Tiñuega far behind them, boarded a plane and flown up to the US. The team had picked up Elena from her home in the inner-city area along the way and bought both her and Nika along. Terry had tried to explain what a bitch customs and immigration was going to be seeing as how they were effectively smuggling two people into the country and yet Dino's stubborn attitude had persisted and eventually Terry had given up and said no more, simply sighing at his friend's unwavering obstinacy.

Dino hadn't seen that much of Elena while they'd been in South America, he'd caught the briefest glimpse of her as she's got into the jeep and then he'd passed out, happy that his internal promise was being kept, finally allowing himself to succumb to the immense pain that his body was suffering and had awoken many hours later as he was being loaded into an ambulance after they'd touched down on US soil. Terry had later told him that Nika had refused to leave his side throughout the flight; she'd held his hand and made sure he was comfortable. From his hospital room and with Terry's help Dino had orchestrated a determined push to get Elena and Nika fast-tracked through the nationalisation process, so they could become US citizens. He had a few contacts within the immigration department, all of whom owed him a lot of favours so he'd called a couple in. His next job had been to find somewhere for the women to stay. He'd been in touch with a women's refuge and got Nika a job as a cook there. He was certain that because of her past experiences she would be able to empathise with the women she would encounter on a day to day basis and would hopefully be able to take advantage of the counselling service that the shelter offered. From the look of it everything had been worth it and to see the smile on Nika's face and hear the happiness in her voice was all the thanks he needed.

"Oh, and happy birthday." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"How'd you…? Who…?" He put two and two together. "Terry, right?"

"Yes." She nodded, admitting that it had been Terry that had let her in on Dino's birthday secret.

"You should be celebrating."

Dino raised the glass of whiskey that sat on the bar in front of him.

"I am."

"But why are you here alone?"

"Nika, I'll let you in on a secret; I hate birthdays."

"Why?"

"Because…" He stared down at the liquid in his glass, silent for a second as he turned the question over in his mind. "…Because I have no-one to celebrate with. I don't have a family and my friends are all either out of the country on operations or most of them have families of their own. Birthdays remind me of what I don't have." He didn't know why he was telling her this, maybe it was the booze talking or perhaps the alcohol was reacting with the few mild pain-killers he was still taking to combat the after-effects of his brief stay in captivity. He didn't know, but somehow telling her this made him feel a little better.

"Then let me be your family for today. Do you mind if I celebrate your birthday with you?"

"I'd be honoured."

"Good, because you don't have much choice anyway. I'm helping you celebrate whether you like it or not."

Dino laughed.

"You've been talking to Terry too much. You're starting to sound like him."

Elena chose this moment to return to the pair. She smiled sweetly at Dino before moving to stand behind her sister, whispering harshly in Spanish in her ear. Dino couldn't help but overhear her words, and though in Spanish, the fluent linguist in him instantly translated as if he were hearing the words in English.

"…_Nika just come out and tell him, you're running out of time here. I see how you look at him and how he looks at you. But apparently you're the only two that can't see it, both as blind as each other. I told you before, you don't even have to say anything, just…y'know...kiss him…"_ Nika had turned a bright shade of scarlet now and was desperately trying to shut her sister up, shooting glances between Elena and Dino. Elena however wasn't listening and continued to jabber away in Spanish, clearly unaware that Dino could understand every word she was saying.

"Elena?" Dino interrupted the young woman's speech, leaning forward as he spoke. "You do realise I can speak Spanish, right?"

Now it was Elena's turn to go bright red and she shot her sister a deeply apologetic look.

"Oh. Oops." She walked quickly away without another word before Nika could inflict any bodily harm on her.

"No, she's not subtle in the slightest. She's clever, but definitely not subtle." Dino said with a grin.

Nika stood up from the stool she'd been sitting on, tears of embarrassment in her eyes, she felt absolutely mortified, praying for the ground to open up and swallow her as she turned away. Dino caught her hand and turned her back to him, pulling her close. He lifted a hand and brushed her hair softly off her face.

"May I?" He took the lack of any kind of rebuttal as a good sign and leaned in, placing a delicate kiss on her lips. He was wary at first, worried that the last thing she wanted after he long ordeal with the gang in Tiñuega was male attention, but when he opened his eyes and pulled back he found Nika hadn't moved, her eyes remaining shut, a smile now tugging at the corners of her mouth. Dino let out a breath that he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"Mr Paldino." The harsh, masculine voice growled behind him.

"Hang on a second, can't you see I'm in the middle of something here?"

"Not any more Mr Paldino. Come with us please." It was then that Dino felt the pressure in the middle of his back the kind of pressure that could only come from the muzzle of a gun.

"Whoa, calm down pal. Ok, I'm coming." He nodded to Nika, trying to get her to walk away. The man with the gun saw his indication and interpreted his intentions correctly.

"No, the two ladies will be coming with us as well."

Great, a whole three months since I've been kidnapped, that had to be the shortest period of freedom ever. Dino thought irritably to himself. And what grated even more on his nerves was the fact that this time it was happening in his home city. He was going to take this idiot down, hard, but first he wanted to find out what they wanted. The guy with the gun lifted the back of Dino's jacket and pulled his Sig out of his waistband, slipping the weapon into his own jacket, out of Dino's reach. The unknown man placed a firm hand on Dino's shoulder and turned him, keeping the gun pressed firmly into the small of his back and started to direct him out of the bar. Daring to take a quick glance in the mirror Dino saw another man dressed in a dark suit leading Nika and Elena out after him.

Once outside the cold air hit them, sending a shiver down Dino's spine. He'd been feeling the cold more than usual since their return from Tinuega, he'd become accustomed to the constant sweltering heat and now, returning to the less tropical climes of New York, the cold had hit him hard. He saw Nika and Elena shiver too and thought that having grown up in South America their displacement to the USA must be even more of a shock, if he was suffering from the change in surroundings then they must be eternally cold.

The group was guided into a waiting dark coloured car with tinted windows. Sitting in the back seat Dino's hands were cuffed and a hood slipped over his head, cutting out all light. What struck him as odd in this situation was how gentle the kidnappers were being, they'd guided him rather than shoved him along, not standard practice in this business. Either they were amateurs or there was something else going on here.

The car stopped just ten minutes or so after they'd started off so they couldn't have travelled that far. At first Dino tried to memorize the twists ad turns in the road but soon became disorientated with the movement. When they pulled to a halt a pressure on Dino's arm pulled him out of the car. And then they were out into the open, the harsh wind once again biting at his exposed skin. Suddenly Dino felt the surface under his boots change in texture and they were out of the wind, presumably having passed over the threshold of whatever building they had been heading towards. The strangest thing though was yet to come, as he stood still, the deafening silence throbbing around him, he felt the cuffs being removed from his wrists and then the dull thud of footsteps as his captors walked away from him. For a second he stood there, confused, wondering if he could remove the material that covered his face. He decided to take the risk and lifted his hands, peeling off the dark hood.

"SURPRISE!"

"Fucking hell!" The noise had scared the shit out of him and as he took the hood off he found himself jumping backwards a little, faced with a bright room full of people, not just any people, but people he knew. Soldiers from his several military units were gathered to one side of the room and a full contingent of Hell Birds stood on the other side. Directly in front of him were the men and women that he worked with as a K&R specialist, Wyatt taking up a prime position at the front of the crowd, and every single one of them was grinning broadly. Dino turned and found Nika and Elena standing behind him, smiling.

"You were in on this?"

They nodded.

"We were going to be the diversion, make sure you didn't wander off somewhere."

"Or get too drunk too early." Elena added. Dino glanced at her, his eyebrows raised, but she merely responded with an innocent shrug of her shoulders.

Nika stepped closer, whispering in his ear. "The way our conversation ended wasn't part of the plan though." She smiled and he felt his heart leap and swell as he realised that she was referring to their brief kiss.

"Well, as a diversionary tactic I've gotta say it was pretty successful. But I think we should try it again, sometime when I'm not being kidnapped and dragged to a party."

In the very middle of the room there was an object that was blocking Dino's view of part of the room, he took a few steps towards the giant cake.

"What the hell?" He looked around at the other people nearby, all of whom returned his puzzled look with a shrug, as if to say 'nothing to do with me'.

There was a quiet bang from the direction of the oversized confection and a figure leapt up, appearing out of the top of the cake, sending a shower of icing raining down on onlookers, mixed with streamers and confetti. Dino reached for the gun in the back of his pants and then remembered that his fake kidnapper had taken it from him earlier. The other men around the room hadn't had their weapons removed from their possession however, and over fifty firearms of varying power were now being pointed towards the mystery cake inhabitant who Dino now recognised as…

"Terry!"

"Happy birthday Dino." He grinned and then looked around him, his smile freezing on his face. "Erm Dino, mate, could you get them to stop pointing the guns now?"

"You're an ass Terry." Dino shook his head, despairing at his friend's antics.

"But a good looking one, right?"

"No, just an ass."

Slowly, as everyone got over the shock, guns were lowered and laughter broke out. The three Hell Birds who recognised Terry came over to lend a hand in extracting Terry from the remnants of the cake.

"Jeez man, you scared the shit out of us."

"Well it was certainly a surprise." Dino chuckled.

"You got that right." Angel handed Terry and Dino open bottles of beer.

"Cheers."

"Cheers." Both Terry and Dino responded in unison, raising their bottles and taking a swig.

"What's this all in aid of then?" Dino asked Terry, wafting his hand around to indicate the presence of all the guests and the streamers and balloons.

"Twofold really, firstly it's your birthday and you hate birthdays, so we thought we'd force you to celebrate it because you're a stubborn freak. And secondly because everyone wanted to come and say how glad they were that you'd got out of South America mostly intact. Wyatt was telling me that the whole K&R scene's been going crazy since you were taken hostage. Havery's come in for some pretty rough criticism for not doing more to help you out." Terry grinned at his boss's reported discomfort.

"About that Ter. Can we have a quiet word, outside?"

"Sure mate." Terry eyes his friend, noting the discomfort that had appeared in his countenance.

But before the pair had a chance to move away, a gaggle of soldiers surrounded Dino and dragged him off in the direction of the bar.

A few hours later Terry slipped outside, he'd been trying to avoid Dino's Hell Bird buddies who were on a mission to make him drink a foul cocktail of spirits that they'd come up with and in his wisdom he was determined to avoid it at all costs. So he'd grabbed a couple of bottles of beer and headed outside. As he stepped across the threshold to the building, out into the cool New York night he saw a familiar figure leaning against a wall a few metres away. Dino had his back against the wall, one foot raised so that the sole of his boot was flat against the wall and his arms were crossed. He didn't notice Terry until he was right up close.

"Dino? What you doing out here?" Terry came to rest next to Dino, copying his posture and leaning back against the wall.

"Recovering."

"Angel get you with the cocktail?"

"Yeah. God, that stuff's foul."

"They've christened it the atom bomb."

"Fuckin' poison's what it is."

They fell into silence for a minute or two, staring down the street to where lights from inside bars and restaurants cast patches of colour onto the pavements.

"You and Nika are getting on well." Terry said with a quick, knowing smile.

"Mmm." At first Dino didn't elaborate. "She's…I don't know…"

"Different from all the other _chicas_?" Terry supplied.

"Yeah." Dino leaned his head back against the brick wall.

"I never thought I'd see it."

"What?" Dino turned to face Terry.

"That a woman could put the same look on your face as you get when you hold a new gun." Terry laughed, prompting Dino to blush and then to join him in laughter.

"Jerk." Dino's face became more serious. "But seriously Ter. You don't think it's Stockholm d'you?"

"Stockholm Syndrome? You? No mate, I think I can say with absolute certainty that you're not susceptible to that. I do think that you met in rather dramatic circumstances and I think her character intrigues you. Just let it run its course, see where it goes."

Dino nodded. "I guess."

"At least if it doesn't work out you can be pretty certain that she'll still be grateful for you helping her to get out of that shit-hole. So it's a fair bet that at least she won't cut up every item of clothing you own and try to sink your car in the lake in Central Park like your ex-wife did."

"Thanks for reminding me about that." Dino shuddered at the thought of the dragon that he had the pleasure of calling his ex.

"No problem." Terry grinned. "So what did you want to talk about earlier?"

"Oh," Dino paused, unwilling to break the cheerful atmosphere with bad news. "I wanted you to be the first to know, I've quit from Luthan risk."

"_What_? _When_?" The news completely shocked Terry, sending his mind spinning in a frenzied whirlwind of thoughts.

"This afternoon. It's been on my mind for a while, pretty much since we got back actually, but I phoned Havery earlier on and finally did it."

"Why?"

"I'd have thought it was pretty obvious. Luthan Risk doesn't give a shit about whether we get out of there alive man. They just want the contracts to keep on coming."

"And you think another company's gonna treat you any different?"

"No. I'm not completely dumb Ter."

Terry shot him a look that said _'prove it'_ and Dino rolled his eyes at the correctly interpreted silent sarcasm.

"Then why?"

"I've been approached by a new company on the market, they're willing to pay me more money and they'll let me train my own crew." He paused and bought his head up so he was looking directly at Terry. "Just a few more missions Ter. A few more front line contracts and maybe just one big one, you know the sort that legends are made of that I can sell, then I can sit back and relax in the boss's chair and let someone else take all the risks."

"You don't get to make legends without taking a few risks Dino. You'd never cope with wearing a suit every day and it's all suits up on the top floor mate."

"I'd rather be stuck in a suit than a full body cast Ter. Besides, a suit covers up more of the scars than the usual stuff I wear." He was subconsciously holding the top of his left arm where the bullet had gouged its vicious path through his flesh; a wound that was going to leave one heck of a scar behind.

"What about las chicas Dino? The ladies love a few war wounds."

"There is that." Dino admitted, nodding his head. "But I think I've probably got enough scars to be interesting already Ter. I want to get out while I'm still breathing and I've still got full use of all my limbs and not looking like the Elephant man from a crap-load of beatings would be nice."

"You crossed that line a long time ago mate, besides, you always were an ugly fucker."

"Thanks very much." Dino couldn't help but grin at his friend's jibe.

The pair fell silent for a minute or two.

"So is this the end of the road for us Dino?" Terry asked.

"Nah, never the end man. It's just the beginning of a new chapter. I'll always be there to save your ass."

Terry handed Dino one of the bottles he was carrying.

"I'd say that deserves a toast. To new beginnings?"

"How about 'to old friends and new beginnings'?" Dino added to Terry's original toast and Terry nodded in agreement.

"Old friends and new beginnings."

Their bottles met in mid air with a soft 'clink' and the two men took long draughts of the liquid.

"Mind you, perhaps it's a good thing," Terry said as he lowered his bottle from his lips, "I couldn't deal with your snoring any more. Angel was right Dino, you snore like a pig."

"Fuck off." Dino turned and punched Terry squarely on the shoulder and they descended into laughter.

**-END-**

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